Relapse ★ Bucky Barnes

Home Is Where the Heart Is

Clint's home was full, so full that Laura had decided to take the kids over to Levi's house for the night to give Clint, Marlena, and Wanda time alone with their friends. The entire group sat together at the dining room table; Marlena sat at the head with her feet propped up and her journal in hand, Wanda sat to her right, Clint sat to her left, Bucky sat beside Clint, Pietro sat beside Wanda, Steve sat beside Bucky, Sam sat beside Pietro, and Tony sat at the opposite head of the table. It was unclear to any of them why they had chosen to sit at the table rather than in the living room, but they didn't seem to mind. They were together again, and that was all that mattered.

"Your hand has been moving at a pace I don't even think Ricky Bobby over here could move," Tony spoke to Marlena. "Are you writing a novel or something? What the hell are you doing?"

Marlena bit her lip as she finished up the last line of her entry; it was the one she had been working on when they had originally arrived. "What if I was writing a novel?" she retorted as she sat the journal down on the table.

Bucky raised a brow at her. "You writing a novel? You don't have the patience."

"A lot can change in three months," she smirked, crossing her arms over her chest. "But it's just a journal. People keep journals, y'know?"

"I still don't know about it," Tony said with a head shake.

"Me either," Pietro chimed in. "You tend to keep your feelings bottled up; you writing a journal is a little bit peculiar."

Marlena rolled her eyes. "If you knew the reason behind it you would understand why I keep it. Can we stop talking about it please?"

Clint clapped his hands together. "Yes, we can! Now we can talk about why you have your dirty shoes on my dining room table."

"Because it's my birthday, which allows me to do what I want," Marlena smiled.

"Not in this house, princess," Clint scoffed. "At least take your shoes off."

Marlena kicked her boots onto the table before putting her feet back onto the floor. Clint sighed and shook his head before grabbing the shoes and tossing them to the floor. "You said take them off; you didn't say where to put them."

Clint looked around at everyone, most of who had very amused expressions on their faces. "This is what I've been dealing with for three months. When you leave again, please take her and her twin sister with you."

"We will," Sam chuckled.

Marlena smiled and sat back in her seat, gazing around at the people she loved so dearly. She was happy to see them, though she wished everyone else could be here as well. It had turned out to be a good birthday for her nonetheless. There wasn't a single present that could ever live up to this one, but she couldn't help but think about Tony's 'part two and three' to her present-the one he had wrote about in the letter he had sent her only two days ago.

"Tony, where's part two and three of my birthday present?" she asked him, her eyes narrowed in concentration.

Tony gave a ghost of a smile and looked down at the table. "First of all, we are part two. Part three involves me liberating you and Wanda so you can go back home. I figure you two have been missing that cute white house with the green shutters and your little fur ball Mason, so I thought I'd take it upon myself to wipe your records so you'd be safe. Ross doesn't know, and I prefer it stay that way."

Wanda and Marlena exchanged glances with one another. Wanda frowned, while Marlena sat back against her chair, her focus falling on her hands in her lap. Clint just pursed his lips and removed himself from the table and into the kitchen to make some tea, not wanting to be involved in the emotional shitfest that was bound to take place.