happier // avengers au

CH. FOUR

Anastasia's small hand reaches out to grab hold of Bucky's cool metal one as he leads her out the door of the white room for the first time.

He closes his fingers around hers lightly, hyper-aware of how fragile her bones are and how easy it would be to accidentally crush her hand. He is a surprised that she wants to hold onto his prosthetic and not his human, flesh arm, especially since she knows how the metal was weaponized. He looks down at her, but she's not looking at him or at his arm.

Anastasia's eyes are wide and catching on every little detail of the plain cream hallway they walk down. Even though the door was never locked on her, she's never really considered exiting the room.

Her room.

He leads her less than a minute down the hall, but it feels like longer to Ana.

The door he opens leads to a bigger room than her white room, but the walls are a bluish grey and there are a collection of plushy chairs gathered around a big wooden table. She sees Clint and Tony sitting at the table, leaning back in their chairs as they lounge waiting for her and James. Steve is leaning against the table, and he stands straighter when the unlikely pair enter. There is another man with dusty-looking hair standing by the wall looking at a clipboard in his hand. He looks up as she enters, and she can only assume that this is Bruce Banner. He looks a bit nervous, but not necessarily about her.

Clint gives her a nod in greeting and Tony opens his arms wide.

"The elusive Anastasia and her bodyguard arrive," he says before motioning to two chairs on the other side of the table from him and Clint.

James nudges her over, but she takes hold of his arm with her other hand too and places it in front of her almost as if to hide her skinny body behind it.

After throwing up her first meal in the Tower, she didn't really want to eat again, but soon her hunger became too much to ignore and James convinced her to eat a little eat day and build up to a full meal so her body can acclimate. Today, after close to a full meal, she told him that if he stayed with her, she would do her best to answer the others' questions.

James nudges her again towards the chairs. He nods when she looks up at him warily, trying not to reconsider her agreement. She wouldn't have sat down if James wasn't there with her. It's a comfortable chair, but it also means she has to let go of his hand.

Both of their postures are rod-straight, as though someone has glued a meter-stick to each of their backs.

Anastasia spies a file folder on the table, neatly placed so that she can't see any of the white papers inside. She knows it's about her, though.

When she sits down, Tony extends an arm towards the man still standing by the wall. He takes a couple steps forward.

"This is Bruce Banner. Resident big green rage monster and owner of multiple PhDs."

Anastasia frowns in confusion and Bruce fidgets with his hands and looks away from her, uncomfortable. He doesn't look like a big green rage monster.

Steve frowns at Tony disapprovingly for introducing Bruce like that, but Tony waves him off. "Come on, Cap, he knows we like him."

Steve rolls his eyes and Tony continues: "Thanks for giving us your name, kid, we wouldn't have found your file without it. There aren't any pictures, and we picked up quite a few. We also had to run them all through a translator, so that took time." He flips the file open on the table and spreads out the sheets inside, picking up the topmost one to read from. "So, Anastasia Vera Martin, you are...almost 8 years old, by the looks of it. Born October 28th, 2006 in Galich, Russia. Spent almost 4 years in that base. Parents names are Julien Martin and Alyona Nikolaeva, both deceased. HYDRA picked you up in Belgium...number is 23-10. Do the numbers mean something special?"