Kiss Me

Listen To Me

I knew he didn't trust me right away. None of them do, I know that. Stark, though, makes it especially obvious.

You see, today, he decided it'd be a good idea to have the Avengers (and myself) decorate Stark Tower. The only thing is that he still thinks I'm a goddamned fugitive who's actively trying to kill Steve.

I could never even begin to fathom something so terrible, even considering everything I've done and the monster I'm made out to be.

Even while he thinks that I'm trying to kill Steve, he's still gone and paired us up to decorate together. Mind you, we're the only two working together which makes no sense... either way, it's because Stark doesn't trust me. Whatever.

Ugh...

He's looking at me. I'm zoning out again.

"Barnes," he said, snapping his fingers at me. "Are you listening to me? Hello? Earth to The Winter Soldier; yoo-hoo?"

"That's not my name anymore, Stark, you know damn well th-"

"Yea yea, let's get into the holiday spirit, alright? We've got a lot to do this season, seeing as we're... starting late this year," he added, looking right at me.

Yea, okay, it's my fault. Okay, but not really though. After everything that happened in the spring with Hydra controlling me and trying to get me to kill Steve and wiping my memory repeatedly, the Avengers decided Christmas wasn't exactly their most immediate priority. Destabilizing me was, above everything else, the number one thing not he checklist.

After I snapped out of it (only partially as far as they know but fully as much as I'm aware) they were hesitant to move forward, but happy about it nonetheless.

And so, here we are. It's December 20 and we're decorating for Christmas. But, God, sometimes I hate how crazy and scatterbrained Stark can be.

"Looking at the list I threw together earlier this morning," Stark announced, pulling out a sheet of paper with names on it, "I've got Thor on garland, Nat on cookies and treats, Clint on the star and internal knick knacks, me on the exterior of Stark Tower, Bruce on tree duty... then Cap on lights and ornaments. Alright team, move out!"

I looked at him then at Steve wondering why the hell I didn't get an announcement, but then I remembered. I'm America's most wanted criminal, I don't have feelings, right?

Right.

I followed Steve to a room far down the hall where there had been a mass amount of decorations within our category hidden away in a storage room.

He opened the door with a key Stark had given him and we entered, only to be bombarded with the fear that there may not be enough time in one day to put all of this stuff up correctly.

"Holy Hell," I whispered.

"You're not wrong, Buck, there's a lot of shit in here," he replied, looking around at all of it like I had been. "I guess the best way to do this is to just start wherever. I'll grab a bin and you can too, that way we'll get everything out there faster."

I did what he asked and followed him out to the communal living room, which had just been evacuated, and set the bin down next to his.

We opened them up, and we were off on a decorating spree. Dear God, let this not take literally forever.

And so, we started putting up the lights and any other little things that we happened to find in the closet, because why not. Banner had already brought back a fresh tree from who knows where and so Steve was working on the ornaments and waiting on Clint to get back with the star.