Most interesting stories start with an uninteresting person, something like 'you were an average girl, with an average life, and every day was the same." but you were not an average girl, and by fact you were far from it. And certainly no day was ever the same. Not when you were an Avenger. Not every girl had the chance to say they were best friends with Natasha Romanoff, or that every Friday night you would sit and watch Netflix with Steve Rogers, trying to educate him on the things he still hadn't caught up on since coming out of the ice, or that you had no real income and everything you participated in was funded by a 'genius billionaire playboy' heck, you even lived in his house... Well tower.
You didn't even have an ordinary childhood, you would have given anything at the time for that. Your parents had you when they were eighteen by accident and never really cared about you much at all. You were neglected and your father died of alcohol abuse when you were three. You were left to your own devices growing up, your mom was either sleeping with some random guy she just met the night before (at his house of course, she would never tell anyone she had a child, she thought they would think less of her) or she would be out at parties, trying to live the life she considered to have missed out on due to having you at such a young age.
At seventeen you gave up and left. No money, no family to go and stay with, and no friends to lean on for help. You met some not great people who took you under their wing, the same people who took in Natasha as well.
You are definitely not ordinary if you can call yourself an ex-assassin.
Natasha had always been more confident than you. She was good at separating social life from work life, not that there is was much social life, you were always on the go hiding from someone or another. Nat could kill someone and walk away without thinking twice about it, this didn't make her a bad person, it just made her good at her job. But you walked away with a feeling of guilt trapped in your gut, not always, some were okay, some you thought even deserved it. But there were some kills that just played in your mind over and over each night.
When Nat 'retired' you also 'retired' . You didn't know if you would ever get out of the business if you didn't leave at the same time as her. Sure it was half decent pay, but what were you supposed to do with the money. It's not like you could buy a nice house, have a family, drop your kids off at school and go to work and be there for them coming home, no. That fantasy life you had given up on a long time ago.
You hung around with Nat for about a year, before she got recruited by S.H.I.E.L.D , you even knew her during the Budapest time (god what a story was behind that one, but not a story for today.)
When Nat got recruited, you were alone for a while, you spent some time with Clint, but he was kind of boring and you never really liked him as much at you did Natasha.
You will always remember the first time the Avengers needed you. After S.H.I.EL.D fell Nat became an Avenger, and you felt like a proud little sister, because you were. You considered Nat your older sister, she was your only family before the Avengers. The first time the Avengers needed you was when they were short staffed for a mission. Tony was out due to heavy injuries from the week before, Clint was off doing god knows what, Peter was considered to be too inexperienced for this one and Bruce just downright refused. Nat told them all about you, and how she and you had the exact same training. Steve agreed to bring you in to see how you felt about it, but Tony, despite not going on the mission himself, was a bit wary to bring in someone new.
But it happened, Steve (thankfully) got his way and Tony agreed to you helping out for one mission. Then you were needed again, and again, and again. Until they were just like 'fuck it, let's just make you an official Avenger now.'
Being an Avenger had its positives of course, but also it's negatives. You began to treat every day like it was your last, because really, you didn't know if it was going to be or not. The probability of dying while fighting off some psychopathic asshole was very high. But you knew this when you signed up.
Being an Avenger meant being in the public eye a lot, you were either being praised by the media, or criticised, there was very rarely an inbetween. Of course when the media started reports it was all like 'the new girl' and 'new avenger? who could she be?' you know, all of the cringe headlines you see everywhere, but when people started to realise that you were going to be there more and more, the public gave you a 'superhero name'. You didn't consider yourself a superhero, you were far from it. But you understood that there was people out there that needed this, they needed hope. The avengers gave them that. When 'black cat' first came out on newspaper headlines you didn't know what to think of it, sometimes you hated that it was so similar to Natashas, you didn't want her to think you were trying to be her, but she had no problem with it considering it was the newspaper companies that created the name themselves. You weren't even a cat fan, but you dealt with it and it's now been adapted to your every day life.
Even the Avengers had adapted to it. Almost no one called you by your real name anymore, Nat did occasionally, but most of the time people had gotten used to calling you 'Cat'. It was a bit like the way everyone calls Steve 'Cap'.
You kind of liked it anyways, 'Cat' was almost a fresh start after everything that happened in your past, but it also came with a burden almost, like you are set out to be this person you don't know if you should be. You don't know if you deserve this name, this title... The Avengers title.
——
There where no planned missions for a week so that morning you decided to sleep in. You had left the window open overnight and due to sleeping near the top of a tower you felt the breeze hitting your face. Refreshing? Sure, but you were hoping to sleep a little later than 8am today. You roll over and lie on your front and try to go back to sleep, this time your face is shielded from the wind but this time it's something else keeping you awake. Thor's snoring.
At least someone is able to have a long lie.
Having your bedroom directly next to the God of Thunders was incredibly irritating at times, he snored loudly and sometimes went to sleep very late at night so the noise of him going to the toilet or pacing around the room trying to get ready for bed kept you awake. Normally you tried to remember to put in noise blocking earbuds before going to sleep, but the days when you forgot and then had to wake up early for a mission the next morning were extremely annoying, it meant you may only get one hour of sleep.
You wait another fifteen minutes, but of course Thor doesn't shut up. You let out a sigh and give up. You rub your eyes and slowly step out of bed. Opening the curtains you squint at the bright sunlight before taking in the view. You had been living in this room for about a year and you still weren't used to it. The New York skyline would never become boring. Even from so high up there was always something new to see every morning.
You walk towards the main kitchen where the Avengers hung out most mornings. You passed some electricians on the way, some people from the lab too. They just nodded in your direction with a quiet hello. Steve said you intimidated them, but you tried to be nice, just because your an Avenger doesn't mean you can't be human too, right?
"Cat, hey!"
Nat smiles at you. She's sitting with Steve eating a bowl of cereal while Cap has his nose stuck in a book about criminology.
"I thought you would have slept all day today" She teases.
"Well I was planning on it" You reply, while looking for food that hasn't already been eaten. A full packet of food here was very few and far between. Some of you hid your food so others wouldn't eat it, or some just adjusted to eating whatever the hell was there, in this case porridge. Of course it was the worst stuff left until last.
You use up the last of the porridge and stick it in the microwave to cook. You knew the proper way to cook it was on the stove but you didn't have enough energy for that today.
Once the microwave pings and you get your food, you walk over and sit opposite Steve and Nat, Steve had barley acknowledged you (he wasn't ignoring you he was just very interested in the book he was reading) whereas Nat was looking at you ready for a good conversation.
"Thor wouldn't shut the hell up." You complained, placing your bowl on the table so hard that some spilled over the sides.
"Wow someone's in a bad mood this morning." Nat laughed and took a bite out of a granola bar she had taken right from Steves hands, who had no idea.
Mornings in the tower (when there were no missions or assignments) were pretty laid back. Most people stayed here all day and didn't leave much to avoid the press and paparazzi. The last thing any of you needed was a small man in a suit with an oversized microphone jumping out asking 'who's dating who?' or 'is it true Tony Stark is dead?'
No you idiot. He literally posted a video of him floating in the overly expensive pool he installed last month on his instagram stories two hours ago.
No one was paying any attention to anyone else coming into the room. Sam walked in for a coffee and went back to his room. Wanda sat and turned on a documentary while eating pop tarts, and Bucky came in looking for food. He was dressed only in a vest styled shirt and shorts and his hair was a mess. He ran it through his fingers as he walked into the kitchen and scratched his head. That's what men do when they wake up apparently.
"Who the hell ate my porridge? Buy your own food." He growled and shoved the empty packet in the bin.
You roll your eyes and continue to eat spoonfuls of your breakfast.
Bucky walks passed and spots you eating and glares at you. If looks could kill- you would be dead, and it's all about breakfast food, and mutters.
"Fucking Cat, I should have known."
Oh yeah, there was one not so tiny detail I missed out. You and James Buchanan Barnes hated each other more than anything else on this planet.