the strongest avenger (2)

ninety six

Thanksgiving passed. We did a little dinner with Turkey and all that fun stuff, but our main priority was Hydra. It was like we woke up and Hydra was on our minds. Everyday we were doing something related to taking down Hydra, whether it was Tony hacking into their database to get codes using Danika's login, or teams going out to take down facilities.

My team took on the bigger ones, due to the fact that I can stop time, even if only for a short while. London, Toronto, Mexico City...all down. A few smaller ones are down as well. We still have some more, but I'm optimistic that by the New Year we'll be ready to implement our plan with Danika.

Peter's been around to help on the non-active side of things, more so with Tony. Occasionally, I'll have him watch Alpine for James and I.

Speaking of James, he hasn't had any nightmares recently. Or at least ones that wake me up. I can still sense sadness from him, but it's been lessened. We had enjoyed that night in Waco...it was definitely memorable.

My first time doing it with two other people, and they're both super soldiers...I was so exhausted after that I didn't even get to enjoy my dumplings, I was knocked out. They worked me pretty hard...

Anyways, it's December now and almost Bruce's birthday. I think he just wants a little family dinner, that we can do easily. However, to make it fun...Wanda and I came up with the idea for all of us to make pizzas. So, we went out to the store and got the necessary ingredients and then we set up everything in the dining room, because we needed more room than just the kitchen.

Nine balls of dough rest on the outskirts of the table, jars of sauce in the middle, a few rolling pins for those who need it, and then countless toppings in little bowls for everyone to pick.

"Oh look how cute." I turn towards the entry way to find Tony leaning against the door, grey hairs sporadically located throughout his goatee, sometimes I forget that he's kinda old.

"We asked Bruce what he wanted to do, and he said he wanted pizza. So...we're making pizza." I gesture to the table.

"This looks fun." Steve's head pops out from behind Tony. Looking at him, my mind immediately goes back to Texas...

I shake my head and smile. "It's going to be fun. Pick a seat."

Wanda comes in from the kitchen and settles down, Steve and Tony doing the same. Eventually, I sit down next to Wanda, Nat next to Steve. Bucky comes in and steals the seat on my other side. And then Sam and Peter join us. And then lastly, Bruce walks in, and we cheer for him, watching as he gets red in the face.

"Oh, stop it..." He blushes further and then sits down at the head of the table.

"Okay birthday boy," I start, gesturing for Wanda to do our trick. "You wanted pizza, so we're making pizza!" Wanda flicks her fingers and we watch as a cone-shaped hat enters the room from the kitchen, swathed in red mist. It settles on Bruce's head, making a few of us laugh.

"Very clever." He mutters.

Music plays in the background as everyone gets started on rolling out their dough. I resist laughing at James, because the dough sticks extra to his vibranium arm.

"Stop laughing." He whispers to me and I just shake my head. "You're gonna regret that later." I blush rapidly and bite my lip.

Pushing my thoughts away from James, I roll out the dough until it's slightly smaller than personal size, because I like my crust to be thicker. Looking back at Bucky's mess of dough, I decide to take pity on him and flick my fingers, making his dough flatten and unstick from him.

"Thanks, doll."

"My eyes were hurting watching you struggle."

He shoots me a glare and I bite my lip. People talk around me, side conversations here and there as I grab the jar of sauce and a spoon, and begin to spread it out onto my dough.