Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

———

Bucky, growing up, had enjoyed movies when he had the chance to see them. When Steve and him had a dollar or two to spare, or nudged and pushed each other into sneaking in to the local theatre. The black and white moving images were mesmerising, even without sound. But still, it hadn’t ever been his preferred way to spend time like it was for a few of his friends. He’d much preferred moving, doing something with his hands, and chasing Steve around the back streets of Brooklyn.

When he’d been awoken by Steve from being the Winter Soldier, watching a movie wasn’t exactly at the top of his priority list. It wasn’t until they were in Wakanda that Sam had gripped him by the arm, shoved him down on the couch, and said, “I think it’s time we educated you, old man.” Now, Sam and he hadn’t exactly been friends by that point. They’d barely spoken one on one. But Bucky thinks maybe Sam had noticed how out of it he’d been - how he’d been getting tired, and numb, and was wandering around their rooms aimlessly, and he’d decided to do something about it. He hadn’t ever thanked Sam. He probably should.

Sam had played a ‘classic’, he’d said. Star Wars. Bucky could hardly comprehend the giant ships and glowing swords on such a tiny screen, but it did well to distract him from his own self-sabotaging brain. They’d ended up finishing the series during their stay in Wakanda, including the prequels and a couple of the sequels, and then moved on to other films. All Sam’s suggestions, completely random and never the same genre, until other people started joining in. Steve was the first to walk in on them accidentally, halfway through Charlotte’s Web. “Mind if I join you?” As if he’d even needed to ask. Then he started coming in for more. Clint came in before they’d even started a movie one day, sitting on the couch as if belonged there, and piping in with annoying (admittedly sometimes funny) commentary when it was a movie he didn’t care for. Steve soon started bringing Wanda along, who made some of her own quiet suggestions. Scott, desperate to get back to his family, wasn’t as easily swayed, but he did come to watch when they played the Iron Giant, for some reason.

There wasn’t exactly a schedule, but a few times a week, Sam and Bucky would sit down for a movie, and whoever wanted to would join in as well. Bucky wasn’t ashamed to say he missed those times.

Then there was a war, and he and half the population were gone for five years, and he came back to a world in utter chaos, and then before he could get his bearings, his best friend decided to leave him for his girl. (Sue him, he was still a little bitter. What a punk. But dammit, if he wasn’t happy for him). So, for a while he avoided movies again. Worked on his list. Absolving his guilt.

Sam, once again, came to the rescue. Working with him had been grating, but in the end, Bucky was happy to call him a friend. Embarrassingly, probably his closest. And neither of them had time to watch anything together, but Bucky started finding time to watch things on his own. Sam was happy enough to send through some suggestions, and Bucky had figured out the internet now, so that heralded its own bucketload of recommendations. Even when he started working at being a congressman, in his spare time, he had a very long list of films (sometimes shows) to get to.

Then, the Thunder- no. Nope, he can’t call them that, even in his own head. The ‘New Avengers’ feels just as off, though it’s starting to grow on him a little bit.

Anyway, the New Avengers. To show a ‘united front’, they’d all agreed to reside in the tower. (Bucky’s pretty sure half of the agreement had simply been because half the team had no where else to go, anyway). It grated on him to live in a place owned by Valentina, but the sour look she’d made when they told her she wasn’t allowed to resell the building made it all worth it. She’d lost a lot of money on it, and the project, and with the impeachment, so - yeah, she wasn’t too happy.

It’d been a long discussion between the ‘team’ on what to do with her. Bucky, the Red ‘call me Alexei’ Guardian and Walker had all been firmly pushing that she be put in jail, but Yelena and Starr had disagreed. She was smart, still rich, and had a lot of influence. She might go to prison, but it almost certainly wouldn’t be long before she’d make her way out again. So, it was smarter to keep her working for them, under their eyes. This argument swayed them pretty quickly, and so it was decided. Keep your enemies close, was a new saying Bucky didn’t really like but reluctantly agreed with. (Bob had kept quiet while this discussion was going on, like he almost always does when decisions are being made, even when they’re about himself. Yelena always tries her best to include him.)

Living in the tower isn’t too bad. It’s so big that they all have their own floors, and rarely see each other. It’s been a few weeks since they’d all moved in, and besides what Alexei has designated ‘team meetings’, Bucky doesn’t think he’s seen many of them more than twice. He’s been pretty busy himself, organising this bunch into something semi-presentable, handling the finances and making necessary connections. He’s grateful to have Valentina working for them, because she’s admittedly way better than he is at this kind of thing. Surprisingly, (or probably not), Alexei has actually been the most helpful in this corner, what with his experience in the public eye. Yelena tries to help, but her experience is almost exclusively in other areas, and plus, she’s been spending a lot of her time working with Bob.

Bob is… Bucky doesn’t know. He hasn’t really seen him. Yelena was the one to take him to the side and explain what had happened, and later told the rest of them that his memories of that are back. They’ve apparently started working on his powers, too, just small things to let him use the energy and not let it build up. Other than that, Bob just seems like… a normal guy. A bit awkward, a bit quiet, but mostly content to watch from the back in ‘team meetings’ and pipe up when he has an idea. If Bucky didn’t know otherwise, he would have no idea that this twenty-something-year-old is actually almost a god.

John Walker, Bucky has discovered, is a man of routine. The tower has a large gym, and Bucky is there pretty frequently. He’s always enjoyed working on his body, pushing himself to a sweat, letting his mind go singularly focused. But if he goes and it’s between five and seven in the morning, Walker will be there. If he goes from six pm to seven, he’ll see him again. Always, without fail, Walker will be training at those hours. They don’t really speak when they see each other, unless Bucky has some important information to relay. They just do their seperate workouts in silence. Even mealtimes are on a timer, according to the times Bucky’d walked in on the communal kitchen and Walker had been there.

They didn’t have a communal kitchen, at first. The food situation started a bit awkward. They’re yet to receive any funding as a superhero team (he’s working on it), but few of them are short on cash. Yelena, Starr and Walker had all been very well paid under Valentina, and thanks to Tony Stark, Bucky isn’t exactly struggling either. Alexei had happily proclaimed that he still had savings from his time as the Red Guardian.

“Bullshit, you’re working as a cab driver, dad!” Yelena had said.

“Is merely a hobby,” he’d shrugged. “I meet lots of people.”

Bob, however, had raised his hand sheepishly. “Uh, I may have spent everything I had on getting to Malaysia? I - yeah, I really have literally nothing right now.”

“That is fine! Is fine, the Red Guardian will support you,” Alexei was quick to jump in.

“… Really? Are you-“

“No, wait, Bob,” Bucky’d cut in. “This is - we’re all in agreement by now that this is a team, right?”

Nods all around, in varying degrees of sincerity.

“Well, until we get proper funding, then we can start acting like one. Valentina owns the building and pays for facilities, things like that, but for food, let’s all contribute.”

Again, with the money they’d been making, Bucky wasn’t surprised that this was a pretty easy agreement from everyone. Bob, though, hesitated.

“Um, I don’t know. This, uh, it’s not exactly fair, is it? I mean, letting me stay here, paying for food, when I can’t even help? Like, I can’t even do the superhero thing without fucking it up, so - so -“

“Well what exactly do you want us to do, huh? Kick you out on the street? Let you starve? Jesus.” Walker was blunt, but he wasn’t wrong. Still, Bob had his eyebrows furrowed, chewing anxiously on his lip.

“You are teammate, Bob! And that is that,” Alexei nodded his head as if the situation was dealt with.

“But - I mean, I’m not, am I? If I can’t fight beside you then what use -“

“You’re not just our teammate, Bob, which - you are, regardless of if you can fight right now - but you’re also our friend, hm?” Yelena looked around. “Or, well, at least my friend. People help their friends, Bob.”

He quieted down, subdued, eyes wide as he looked at Yelena. (Bucky wasn’t typically one to find grown-ass men adorable, but the kid just emitted the aura of a wet cat.)

“There’s that,” Starr had said, “but if you’re really that strung up about it, there’s other ways to contribute. Maybe just do the dishes every now and then?”

Bob turned his eyes to Starr. Bucky felt a little bad for her, seeing clearly that she also was not immune to how big they seemed to get.

“I can - I can do that. I worked in a kitchen for a bit.”

“Then all is settled!” Alexei clapped his hands. “We buy food, Bob does dishes. I can create roster for grocery shop!”

“Thanks, Alexei, but we can probably just order it,” Bucky told him.

“Psh, where is fun in that,” he’d grumbled.

So, with that, they’d created a joint account for team purchases, and food was ordered weekly, except for when Alexei insisted on doing the shopping. Besides a couple individual items, to make it easy, Buck had decided all the food could go in the kitchen on the closest spare floor. Where Buck had spotted his teammates each approximately once besides meetings in the past few weeks? Yep, that kitchen, whether they were eating or grabbing food.

But that was also where he’d seen Walker continue to follow a strict routine. He always ate right after his workout, then at 1pm for lunch, and 7:30 for dinner. Bucky wonders if it’s the veteran in him. He wonders if he’d have turned out that way, if it hadn’t been for the Winter Soldier. Since breaking out of Hydra’s control, Bucky doesn’t exactly enjoy a strict routine - it feels too familiar.

Because Walker follows this structure, Bucky pretty much always knows where he can find him, and also that he hardly leaves the tower. Walker very much keeps to himself. He doesn’t know whether to be surprised by that or not.

Ava Starr, Ghost, definitely lives up to her name. Bucky doesn’t ever know whether she’s in the tower or out of it. Besides one occasion where she walked in to the kitchen when he was eating cereal, he hasn’t seen nor heard from her outside of meetings. He thinks maybe she talks to Yelena and Bob every now and then, but even that he’s not sure of. Her floor is the one right above Bucky’s own, and it’s remarkably silent (though that could almost certainly be attributed to high quality sound proof walls and floors).

All that’s to say, the tower’s great. And spacious. And secluded. So when Bucky secured some popcorn from the communal kitchen to watch The Princess Bride, and ended up in the neighbouring living room instead of back on his own floor, he confused even himself. But he’s here now, and the remote’s just sitting there, so - he shrugs.

He takes a handful of popcorn and cues up The Princess Bride.

———

The farmer is telling the girl ‘as you wish’ when Bucky hears the elevator’s quiet ding that says it’s arriving to this floor. He keeps his eyes on the movie, but from the sound of the footsteps getting closer, it’s clear John Walker is here for some dinner. Bucky checks his phone and - yep, 7:32. As usual.

The living room is on the way to the kitchen, and when Walker walks through, he doesn’t say anything at first. Bucky doesn’t bother to either. When the man starts preparing his meal, he lets himself get re-engrossed into the film. But when Walker comes back through, heaping plate of reheated veggies, rice and chicken in hand, he pauses.

“What’s this?” He asks, his tone skeptical as he watches Wesley and Buttercup say goodbye to each other.

“A movie,” Bucky responds, flat.

He feels more than sees Walker roll his eyes. “Yeah, no shit, Barnes; what movie?”

Bucky’s surprised the man didn’t just walk away. He pauses, wondering if that’s what’s happening here. Are they having a conversation? Like, a proper, small talk conversation, not about work?

“It’s called The Princess Bride,” he says, turning a bit to look at Walker, who’s still watching the screen. “Sam - Captain America - he recommended it to me.”

“Huh,” Walker said. “That -“ he cuts himself off with a sharp look at Bucky, as if expecting judgement for something he hadn’t even said yet. He shuts his mouth, still standing, and goes back to his food. Bucky doesn’t push. Probably doesn’t want to know what would’ve come out of his mouth anyway. He just goes to watching the movie, Walker eating his food surprisingly quietly in the background.

The elevator dings again right as Buttercup is saved from being eaten by eels. Bucky hears the Red Guardian’s booming voice, and then a quieter one.

“Is not nearly as good, am telling you, Yelena!”

“Dad, how the fuck would Russian milk taste any different than American milk?”

“You are smart girl, think! Russian cows are bred big, strong, with prosperous milk! American cows are, well, weak. Small and weak. Have trust, once you -“

His voice cuts off abruptly as they enter the room. Good, because if he’d kept talking, Bucky would’ve had to pause it, and he really didn’t want to do that while Buttercup is, as Sam would say, ‘owning the evil guy’s ass’. (See, Bucky is up with the lingo. He’s not that old.)

“Ah,” Alexei says after a few seconds. “Team movie night! Was wondering when we would do these!”

“Uh,” Walker says, “That’s really not -“

But Alexei has sat himself down on the couch, jostling Bucky a bit. Thankfully, the couch is huge, and they’re sitting at either side, a significant space in the middle.

“Ooookay then,” Walker mutters. Bucky doesn’t say anything.

“What about your ’prize Russian milk’, dad?” Yelena asks, wryly.

“Ah, milk can wait. Let us see how this girl bests these cliffs.”

Yelena shrugs. Then, she turns her eyes to Walker, who Bucky realises has been holding his empty plate for a while.

“What, you are too good to sit down for a movie? Need to show off your standing prowess?”

“What?” He asks, seemingly genuinely baffled, before realising what she’d said. “No, what, I was just -“

“Great,” she cuts him off, “So you are sitting down, then?” Walker opens his mouth, seeming to struggle for what to say, and he looks toward the door, then back at the couch. Bucky turns back to the movie, half to take pressure off, and half because he genuinely just wants to keep watching without all these distractions.

Before he knows it, Yelena has curled up between him and Alexei on the couch, and Walker’s brought a chair in from the kitchen to sit on. Bucky’s just happy they’ve all finally shut up. They watch the man in black (who, Bucky is almost certain, is also Wesley) outsmart the guy, and the prince search for Buttercup, and then the man in black and Buttercup arguing-

“So what’re we watching, then?”

They are a team of super soldiers, spies and assassins, so none of them jump at Starr’s voice, but it is a closer call than Bucky would like to admit.

She’s leaning in the doorway, and Bucky’s not sure how she got to this floor without the elevator going off, but he doesn’t really care because the man in black is falling down the cliff, and calling out “as you wish”, and Bucky was right.

“I am not sure,” Alexei whisper-shouts, “but join us! Is very good movie, this man is very smart.”

“It’s called the Princess Bride,” Bucky finally says, distractedly.

And then there’s five of them, sitting around the large TV in the communal living room and watching a movie together, and none of them are fighting, or dead. Starr had grabbed another chair from the kitchen without protest, and Inigo is being saved by Fezzik, and Bucky has finished his popcorn by this point, bowl set to the side.

He almost expects it when, soon enough, the elevator dings once again.

“Oh - uh, sorry, I’ll, uh, go-“

“Bob, sit down and shut up.” Yelena’s eyes are glued to the screen, but she waves a hand distractedly at him and gestures at an empty space in the somewhat crowded room. He hesitates, just outside the door way, one foot back. Then he creeps in, finds an empty spot on the floor, and sits down, cross-legged.

“There’s more chairs in the kitchen,” Ava says, watching Inigo tell Rugen to prepare to die.

“Oh, no, I don’t mind the floor,” he says. “Hey, is this The Princess Bride?”

He’s met with aggressive ‘shhh!’s all around the room, and he jumps a bit, then lets out a small smile in amusement, raising his hands in surrender.

———

When the credits begin to roll, an argument immediately starts up between Yelena and Starr. Walker interjects, firmly agreeing with Starr, to both of their surprise, and Alexei seems to say whatever’s on his mind, switching between sides and egging the argument on. Bob, after watching in shocked amusement, finally puts his vote in, to the outcry of everyone, and he laughs.

Later, Bucky wouldn’t be able to tell a soul what the argument was about, because he’s sitting and watching these people, this ragtag group, interact. They’re relaxed, even though it’s slightly cramped. They’re arguing, but they’re not fighting. No one is standing up, getting ready to leave - they all look content and happy where they are. Settled in. Bucky grabs the remote, checks his list, and puts on the next movie.

As the argument continues around him, the word ‘team’ floats into his brain. For the first time, Bucky thinks maybe - just maybe - that word can, and will, fit.

END.

Chapter Text

———

It’d taken a surprisingly long time for someone to suggest a game night, but Ava doesn’t know whether to be surprised or not that it was Johnny who did. He’d claimed that it was a better exercise in team bonding, and it’d been fun playing poker with his army buddies. Ava just thinks he was sick of his movie choice being outvoted every single week. But she’s never played poker before, and it looks kind of fun, so, well, she’s not complaining.

“So, essentially, you want the winning hand, right? Your royal flush, straight flush, full house, et cetera,” Johnny is explaining. Ava nods, fingers drumming against the table as he demonstrates each of the sets of cards.

“Bah!” Alexei interrupts. “Is not about winning hand. Is about lying.”

“No- well, yeah, I’m getting to that, jesus. So, yeah, everyone goes around, placing bets, and you can either match it or raise it, or fold. If you’ve got a good hand, obviously you’d raise. But if you have a bad hand, you can try to make everyone think you’ve got a good one - that’s where the lying comes in, or bluffing.”

“That was very well put, Johnny,” Yelena says.

“I was in the army for years, I’ve played a lot of poker - I have told you not to call me that.”

Yelena just smiles sweetly. Johnny rolls his eyes.

“We can just play a practice round first, in case you have any questions,” he says, turning back to Ava is if that isn’t the least antagonistic thing he’s ever said to her. It’s this that finally has everyone staring at him incredulously.

When he looks up from the cards to see everyone’s suspicious eyes on him, he scowls, offended.

“I can be nice! And I want her to know the rules of the game so she can’t use that as an excuse when I take her for everything she owns.” Ah. That makes more sense.

“Aaand there it is,” Yelena says.

“Hey, okay, sue me for wanting to win fairly.”

“Do not worry, John! You will not have to worry about winning at all,” Alexei smiles winningly. “This was only game we could play in Russian prison.”

Ava laughs at Johnny’s face, and Yelena looks at Alexei, cocking her head.

“… that’s nice, dad. But don’t be too hasty, yes?” Yelena says, “You don’t remember teaching me everything you know?”

“Ah, but I have gotten much, much better since then, my sweet Yelena!”

Yelena looks him in the eyes with a smile. “So have I.”

Bucky interrupts the frankly entertaining stare down, “You guys can talk all you want, but I only see one of us here who played poker in the 40s, and it isn’t any of you.”

“Hoo hoo hoo, Bucky Barnes is saying some big words!” Alexei laughs in delight.

They all turn to Bob, who has been watching the conversation like a tennis match. He falters.

“Well, I, uh, used to play against my roommates for drugs? So…”

Ava cocks her head while Alexei nods consideringly.

“Did you win many of the games?” She asks, amused.

“Um… I was probably high for most of them. So I actually don’t really know. ”

“Guess we’ll find out, then,” she says.

They do find out. And Bob is terrible at poker. Somehow worse than Ava, but only just.

“Okay, raise? No, wait,” Bob double checks his cards, “uh, stay? Stay.”

Walker groans.

“There’s literally two cards, and two options, Bob!” Yelena cries. “How can you change your mind five times in one turn?!”

“It’s - I don’t know! I can’t read any of you, so I’m just trying to, I don’t know, use math.”

Ava looks at what remains of Bob starting coins. He’s literally half way out, and it’s been three rounds.

“Bob,” Bucky says, looking directly into his eyes. “I didn’t want to be the one to tell you, but - you are fucking terrible at maths.”

Bob puffs up in offence, mouth open, but then he looks at his $11 and deflates.

“Whatever,” he says, crossing his arms. He looks like he’s fighting not to pout, and losing.

Ava’s just grateful he’s doing so bad that it makes her look the slightest bit better, but she’s not that much better off than him with what remains of her coins.

“I’m raising,” she says, flicking some more in. Her teammates (besides Bob, who is still pouting,) study her face, and she looks back as evenly as she can.

“You’re bluffing,” Alexei declares. Everyone nods in agreement, and they start calling to the bet. Ava scowls.

“This is bullshit! I’ve never had to hide my facial expressions; I was too busy being in excruciating pain and having the molecules on my face decompose every two seconds.”

“Trauma jar,” Yelena sings, and calls.

Bucky, in the interest of team bonding and openness, had implemented a kind of - reward system for opening up about trauma. Ava had thought it was a joke at first, but no - Bucky was determined. If someone was open about their feelings, or agreed to unload on someone else, they got a sticker on the chart, and whoever had the most stickers at the end of the month got out of a chore of their choice for a week. A proper therapy session with a scouted professional was also rewarded. The issue was, in a team of horrifically traumatised army vets, child assassins and the like, this system was very quickly exploited. So, Bucky had been forced to make a caveat - trauma could not be dumped to manipulate anyone else (Yelena), or to one up (Walker), or to get out of doing chores (okay, that one had been Ava). They also couldn’t make jokes that diminished their trauma. The punishment for not following these rules was the trauma jar - and whoever contributed least to the trauma jar every month got the winnings. (So far Bob had won every time. Bucky himself was forced to contribute surprisingly often, mostly for his dry one-liners about being tortured by Hydra, and Alexei enjoyed cheerfully telling stories about his time in Russia as if they weren’t horrific).

“This is fucking ridiculous,” she says, slapping a bill into Bucky’s waiting hand, “no one even carries cash anymore. Alexei literally had to go to an ATM for all of us.”

“The visual representation is important,” Bucky shrugs, calls, and then gets up to put the money in the jar in the kitchen.

They flip their cards, and Ava, of course, loses.

“Fuck.”

Soon enough, Ava and Bob are out of the game, so they’re declared to be in charge of grabbing more snacks and drinks for the table.

“It’s a stupid game anyway,” Ava says with flourish, and Bob nods as they both walk to the kitchen, completely ignored by the others.

Bob starts looking through the drawers, pulling out bags of chips and things, and Ava leans back against the counter top, arms crossed.

“Next time, we’re playing a game we can actually win,” she says.

“I mean, I play a mean game of mario kart?” His voice is slightly muffled as he kneels down to reach for some bowls.

“That’s - the video game, right?”

“Oh, uh, yeah. You’ve never - well, yeah.”

“Hm. You know what? You should teach me to play.”

He pulls back, bowls in hand, to look at her.

“What - really?”

“Yep. Help me get really good, and then we can whoop all of their arses.”

“That - that sounds fun. I’m down.” His bright smile is somewhat blinding. Ava fights the urge to look away.

“Perfect.” She helps him pour the snacks into the bowls and they walk back out into the living room, to the lovely sound of Yelena telling Johnny to ‘hurry the fuck up.’

———

The atmosphere’s tense. Ava had taken out her phone at one point, bored, but she sets it down now.

“Come on, Bucky. Just fold. We know all you’ve got is shit.”

Alexei had bowed owed gracefully after one-too-many bad hands in a row. John had bowed out - well, not so gracefully.

“Fucking - what the hell, one of you is cheating! How - ugh,” he’d complained, crossing his arms.

“Whatever you need to tell yourself,” Yelena had said.

“Hey, at least you beat Bob, Johnny,” Ava offered. John had scowled at the nickname, deciding to ignore her, while Bob had gone back to pouting.

“Rude.”

Now, Bucky stares Yelena down. Then he shoves all of his coins into the pot.

“All in.”

Even Johnny locks into the game, hands on his knees as he leans forward. They all watch Yelena decide what to do.

She looks down at her hand. Back at the table. Then she stares straight into Bucky’s eyes, searching.

“Me, too.”

All the money’s in the centre now. All that’s left is to -

“Flip already!” Alexei demands, to immediate shushes from Ava and Johnny.

They both flip their cards.

Silence, and then -

“Aw, shit,” Yelena says, and the captive audience erupts.

Amidst the chaos and her own reluctant clapping, Ava sees Bucky grin a cocky, self-assured grin that wouldn’t be out of place on a millionaire. It is, admittedly, as charming as it is annoying.

“Amazing game! Masterful bluffs!” Alexei congratulates.

“Yeah, didn’t see that coming,” Johnny admits reluctantly.

Bucky leans back in his chair. “What can I say; you get pretty good at lying to peoples’ faces when your only other option is more Hydra experiments.”

“Trauma jar,” Ava says. With more than a little glee.

Bucky pauses, then sighs. “Fuck.”

“This is bullshit,” Yelena says, “another round!”

“I don’t think any of us have spare change left,” Bob says. “Also, I don’t want to.”

“Yeah, poker’s bollocks,” Ava says, smugly watching Bucky put a note in The Trauma Jar.

“Please, you’re just saying that because you lost,” Johnny says.

“Well yeah. And don’t act like you didn’t lose too!”

“So what, I lost to two super assassins. I had shit cards, anyway.”

“Sounds like an excuse to me,” Yelena says. “But Barnes - you just got lucky. Another round, and you will see who is really better.”

“Who’s making excuses now?” Bucky asks.

“Now, children, children, no need to fight. Perhaps we settle on a different game, no? Let us play the game of monopoly!”

Ava doesn’t know what that is. By the way Bob’s face drops in slight horror, she definitely wants to know. “What’s monopoly?”

“Um, I can only see that game ending badly,” Bob says, shaking his head.

“Bah, we are all adults. Will be fine.”

“Okay then,” Bob raises his hands. “But I bet that someone will end up flipping the board.”

Ava sees some eyes light up around the room, her own included. They are definitely playing monopoly next ‘team game night’.

She can’t lie, she’s looking forward to it for the chance to get some pride back. And maybe - she looks around at everyone as they pack up the table together, arguing all the while - for a couple other reasons, too.

(“Bet what, Bob; you just lost all your money.”

“Okay, screw you, man.”)
———

END.

Chapter Text

———

It’s been a week since the food situation had been sorted, so that means it’s time for another team meeting.

Unfortunately, these team meetings have been extremely monotonous, so far. Yelena’s one of the one’s who’s been pushing for a proper ‘team’ and all that includes, but even she gets sick of hearing the same thing every week. Bucky comes in, describes whatever he, Alexei and Valentina have been working on, and then they all go their separate ways again. It looks like this meeting’s going to be more of the same, until -

“I think that’s everything,” Bucky says, standing up out of his chair.

“No, not everything. I want to show something I’ve been working on!” Alexei sing-songs, and then, seemingly out of no where, produces a giant, brightly coloured poster. The words ‘Thunderbolts Chore Chart!” are written in a cheerful bright yellow at the top.

Silence, for a few seconds. Then Bucky sits back down and tilts his head.

“I like it.”

“What the fuck,” Ava turns, “are you serious?”

“Of course he is serious! It is fine workmanship, no?” Alexei says, playing oblivious.

“Oh, my god,” Yelena buries hers face in her palms.

“Bob has already bravely signed up for dishes.” Indeed, Alexei has written Bob’s name next to the words ‘Washing Dishes’.

“We all know that was mostly symbolic!” John says, “I just clean up after myself like a normal person.”

“What the fuck is ‘water the plants’?” Ava asks. “Do we even have plants?”

“Good eye, Ava!” Alexei says, then produces a pen, also seemingly out of no where. He writes at the end of the list (where there is still a lot of space for apparently more chores), ‘Buy plants’. Then, he signs his name next to it.

“See? Is easy! I get the idea from the internet.”

He holds out the pen in offer, which they all look at. Then, Bucky takes it, and writes his own name.

“We - hardly anyone even uses this floor’s kitchen! There’ll be nothing to sweep,” John exclaims.

“Well, that just means I picked an easy chore.” Bucky shrugs.

Yelena watches the others. Bob is tapping his fingers together, and when she catches his eye, she rolls hers playfully. He lets his mouth quirk up in an amused smile. John is switching and between shooting disbelieving looks at Bucky, and slightly disgusted ones at the chore chart. Ava is - well, she’s standing up.

“The important stuff in this meeting is over, yeah? I’m out, thanks,” Ava says, and like that, she’s gone - phased through the floor.

“I signed up to - fight things, not to take out a trash can that no one even uses.” And with that, John’s gone too.

Alexei’s moustache droops a bit in disappointment, and Yelena can’t help but say, “It was a nice idea, dad, but - we are not children. Perhaps a little silly, no?”

“Perhaps a little,” Alexei admits, and gives her a smile. He’s obviously not too disappointed, and she smiles back.

“Hey, I, uh, like the stickers, man. Very… um, upbeat,” Bob offers.

The stickers are mostly little Russian flags, with a couple of smiley faces here and there. Alexei grins at him, already back at full force.

“I ordered them online! Same day delivery, is very powerful.”

Bob laughs, “Yeah, man.“ Then, he turns to Bucky, “Is the, uh, meeting over?”

Bucky, who’s been rubbing his forehead like he has a headache, sighs. “Yeah, yep. Meeting adjourned.”

———

Yelena had thought that was that, but she should’ve known Alexei better. The next day, the poster had been hung on the communal kitchen’s fridge, and it was so big that it was a struggle to get the door open. She laughed when she saw it. It sat there, ignored for a few days, but at least no one was tearing it down. Then -

Yelena:
Dad?

Alexei:
Yes, Lena?

Yelena:
Is this your doing?
*Image attached.*

Alexei:
Yes! Do you like?

Yelena:
why are there so many???

Alexei:
You never can have too many plants, Lena.

Yelena:
You can hardly see the countertop

Why are they in the kitchen?

I do like the flowers, though

Alexei:
Do not exaggerate, there is plenty of counter space.

Yes, the flowers are very pretty! I bought the red ones for you, was going to bring them to you

Yelena:
Awww
Okay I’ll take those back to my room, but dad, we gotta move some of these, or take some back.

Alexei:
You are no fun. Sad emoji.

Yelena:
You don’t have to type the words sad emoji dad

They don’t end up taking any of the plants back, but instead they migrate around the common floor, some in the living room, some in the meeting rooms, some still in the kitchen. No one says anything about them, at least not to Yelena.

She’s grabbing the things to make some sandwiches a couple days later when she sees, on the chore chart next to the words ‘water plants’, some tiny handwriting. Bob.

She smiles, and takes in the plants with new eyes. They do look pretty healthy - more so than she would’ve expected under Alexei’s hand. She pictures Bob, water jug in hand, walking plant to plant - it’s a good image. Maybe she can get behind this chore chart thing.

She’s still not writing her name on anything yet though. Why the hell would she voluntarily sign up for dusting? Gross.

———

The first ‘movie night’ happens, and Yelena starts to wonder if this team can turn out to be more than coworkers to each other. Clearly, the others have come to the same conclusion, because they all show up when Alexei offers to make dinner. Then they show up to another dinner, and another, and then they have lunch together, and suddenly the chore chart, hanging quietly on the fridge, has become a lot more viable.

It’s team meeting number - 5? 6? - since they all moved in, and Yelena has taken the chore chart and layed it down on the kitchen table (all their meetings seem to happen in the kitchen, now).

“I would like us to revisit the chore ch-“ she starts.

“No!” John says. “No more about the chore chart, please. “

Yes, so her dad has been… not so subtly pushing the chore chart on everyone, whenever he got the chance. It hasn’t worked yet. Yelena can slightly understand John’s reaction. But still -

“No, no, I’m serious. Someone has to sign up to clean the living room every now and then so Bob isn’t the one doing it every time.”

“I - uh, I don’t mind.”

Alexei looks delighted to have Yelena finally fighting for his idea. Despite Bob’s protest, John does sit back in his chair a little, so Yelena keeps going.

“And it’s stupid that we eat dinner so often together but sometimes we don’t so I don’t know whether to make food for myself or not.”

“Yes! Is what I’m saying,” Alexei says.

“And it’s-“

“Okay, okay, Yelena. We get it,” Ava interrupts, sighing. Then, she grabs the pen, and quickly signs her name next to “vacuum carpet”. “I’m not cooking. I’m an atrocious cook.”

Then, she drops the pen back on the table.

“… you know, there’s enough chores that we’ll probably have to do more than one -“

“Don’t push it, Barnes. You’re only signed up for sweeping anyway.”

“Actually, I don’t mind cooking, so I’m going to sign up for that too. Thanks for reminding me, Ava.”

He raises his eyebrows at her. Ava rolls her eyes back, but she’s obviously fighting a smile. The girl can’t lie to save her life.

“Well,” Yelena picks the pen up with flourish, “I also enjoy cooking, so -“ before she can write anything down, Alexei interrupts her.

“Ah! Yelena, er, I appreciate your enthusiasm! But perhaps your talents lie… somewhere else?”

“What is that supposed to mean?” She can cook! She can totally cook. Just because she burnt that pan to a crisp that one time, years ago…

“Yelena, my girl, do you not remember when you destroyed that pa-“

“Dad, I was seven!”

“Even now, all you can make is the macaroni and cheese!”

“Hey, hey, it is very good macaroni and cheese!”

“Okay, sorry to interrupt this lovely family spat, but can I have the pen, please?” John asks, long-suffering.

“Oh. Here,” she hands it to him. He takes it as if it pains him to do so. Dick.

“I, for one, am great at cooking. So,” and he signs his name next to ‘dinner’.

Dick.

Before she can call him that to his face (she’ll have other opportunities, she’s sure), Bob speaks up. “I’ll do the - dusting? I’m not the best at cooking either,” and he smiles in commiseration at Yelena and Ava. She has the weirdest urge to put him in her pocket and carry him around. To fight that feeling, she teases him instead.

“Are you trying to say I’m a bad cook?” She demands.

“What?! No! Uh - I was just, wait, uh-”

Yelena can’t stop herself from laughing, and then the others start too. Bob flushes a bright red and cuts himself off.

“Sure, maybe, maybe I was calling you a bad cook then,” he decides, crossing his arms.

“Aw, sorry Bob, I could not help it,” she says. “It is just too easy. Ach, okay, okay, please stop the pouting!”

“I, I’m not pouting! I’m just - ”

“Looks a lot like it to me,” Bucky shrugs, amusement plain in his expression.

Bob groans and collapses into his arms down on the table, covering his red face. “I don’t know why I even come to these,” he mumbles, barely loud enough to hear.

“There, there,” Ava pats him on the shoulder. “I don’t think any of us do. Now, who’s taking out the rubbish, then?”

———

They eat a reheated dinner as they divvy up the chores semi-equally between them. There’s so many arguments that Bucky pulls out a coin to flip, and by the time they’re all finally finished, it’s dark out.

Bob gets up to start packing up, but Yelena gently smacks his hand.

“C’mon, Bobs,” he throws an arm around Bob’s shoulders, (and Yelena probably only notices because she’s looking out for it, but) Bob glows with the physical contact. “Let’s get the remote before Ava tries to, yeah?”

“Oh, yeah, smart, Bob nods.

“Hey!” Ava protests. Bucky follows them out, pinching his nose like he’s got a headache, but Yelena has spent a lifetime reading people and he’s actually trying not to laugh; she can tell.

Then, it’s just her and Alexei, moving around the kitchen, collecting dishes to wash.

“So,” she says as she starts to fill up the sink with warm, bubbly water. “The chore chart was a success, hm?”

“Yes! Score one for internet and the Red Guardian.”

“You’re not surprised it worked out, are you?”

“Not a bit. I knew we would become proper team.”

She laughs. “You had more faith than any of us. Hey… can I ask a question?”

“Of course, Lena.”

“Are you… happy? Fulfilled?” She turns to him, leaning her hip against the counter. He only thinks for a moment before answering.

“I have you, I have the others; I am pretty happy right now, my ashtoka. And… how about you?” He’s grabbing her by the shoulders, now, gently turning her to face her straight on, eyes serious and looking straight into hers. She looks steadily back.

“There’s been bad days, and good days, but - I think I’m pretty happy right now too, dad.”

Yelena leans forward at the same time that he pulls her into a tight hug. “Good,” he murmurs into her hair. “That is good.”

END.

———

Excerpt.

“Ava, you better not try to put on another nature documentary, I swear to fucking god -“

“I’m sorry that I like to watch informative stuff, John, instead of the stupid slashers you think count as comedies -“

“They are funny! Ava, give me the remote.”

“No.”

“Now!”

“No!”

“Come back here -“

An ominous crash.

“Uh- are you guys okay? Bucky, shouldn’t we -”

“Shh, Bob. Not our problem. Not our problem.”

———