Laura informed me when I came downstairs that Lila had dropped a glass and shattered it, and that I should watch out in case she missed any while cleaning it up. I briefly said okay and went to the living room with Bucky and Clint. I wished I had listened a bit more intently.
"Hey . . . Bucky?" I called as I sat down propped my right foot on my left knee. I was never one to grow faint at the sight of blood - ever - but the sight in front of me made that no longer the case.
"Yes, my love?" He called back from the living room.
"My blood is purple." I responded, gently pulling the decent-sized shard of glass from my heel. I jumped as the gash closed up immediately, but the blood surrounding it stayed.
"Isn't all blood purple-ish until you're cut or something?" He asked, as if I was the one being stupid.
I rolled my eyes. The decent amount of blood on my foot, taking on a very unusual and very fake-looking lilac color, would prove him otherwise even if he was right. Which he wasn't. "One, that's wrong. Two, I did cut myself. And there's lots of blood."
At this they both come into the kitchen, Bucky kneeling next to me and Clint grabbing a paper towel and bandage. Bucky just stared at my foot, at my blood. My purple blood.
"You're not cut." He said.
I smacked the side of his head playfully. "I was. I took the glass out and it healed. Completely. Like, and inch-long cut just completely healed. Doesn't hurt either. I'm putting it down to whatever . . . they did to me."
He looked at me and tilted his head, then looked back at my foot. He then looked back at my face, and ran his thumb under one of my eyes. "Well, damn." He whispered, intently but gingerly noting the color to my visible veins.
Clint came over and squinted at him. "What do you see, Barnes?"
Bucky took the wet paper towel from Clint and wiped the drying blood from my foot. He bit his lip, then looked back at me. "Well, it's a color I've seen before. One I remember pretty well . . . It is the same color as one of the IV's you were given back there. I may be wrong but it seems very reasonable to suggest that it's done more than make you and angry strong woman. The veins under you're eyes, too. I thought it was normal, but they're pretty purple too."
I sat back and sighed. "Well, damn."
"It's certainly a souvenir, Maisie Jo." Bucky smiled.
I glared at him jokingly. "You're the only souvenir that I'm okay with having, James."
Clint looked between the both of us. "So, Hydra did that?"
I twitched at the word. Hydra. Another lovely reminder of what they did as I have to suppress the urge to bite his head off. I breathed out slowly with pinched shut eyes. Breathe, focus, ball it up, shove it down, and take it out on a tree or something.
"Well, damn." Clint and Bucky whispered together.
I cleared my throat and looked up at the two of them. "What?"
"Do you really wanna know?" Bucky asked, making a weird, scrunched-up face to amuse me.
I smiled lightly, unsure. "We'll see after you tell me."
"Before you shut Her down . . . " Bucky gestured wildly at me, trying to find the words to explain. "You - Or, rather, your veins - they . . .-"
"You have sparkly purple spider webs for veins when you go to Her." Clint interjected, putting it bluntly.
"She needs a cooler name." I sighed. "Whatever, I guess. I like purple. I would've preferred black, but whatever. She won't be coming out any time soon for it to be important."
Bucky didn't register what I said, just stared blankly at me. "You didn't do that at the safe house . . . When we fought, when you first woke up, you didn't do that. Your eyes went purple . . . But not anymore."
I stood up, shaking my head when Clint offered me the bandage. "Gotta be awake, apparently."
"So She's a bum when she's tired? And obnoxious when She's angry? Not much different from you, then?" Bucky smiled a cheeky smile before I punched his right arm.
"You're lucky She's stronger than me, motherf-"
"Children present!" Laura exclaimed as she wobbled outside, her and the children in full snow-suits.
I mouthed the rest of the word at Bucky, and he mocked me back. He smiled and pulled me into a hug. All three of us wordlessly made our way back to the couches. I sat with my feet on Bucky's lap, groaning as I realized I didn't get the coffee I went in there to refill.
"Amygdala." Clint said as he opened his laptop again.
"Pardon?" I asked, taking Bucky's coffee from his hands. "What about it?"
"Two nuclei located deep within the temporal lobes. They perform primary roles in memory, decisions-making, and emotional reactions." He looked up at me, then back at his screen. "Studies where the amygdala was stimulated appears to increase sexual and aggressive behavior."
Bucky cleared his throat and tried to hide his blushing cheeks. His neck blushed and I laughed, remembering a day ages ago. I nudged him with my knee. "Grandpa, having trouble hearing the word 'sexual'?" He told me to shut up and listen to Clint. I laughed again and listened.
"'Likewise, studies using brain lesions have shown that harm to the amygdala may produce the opposite effect.'" Clint continued, still smirking at Bucky.
"So they tried to damage my amygdala but it did the opposite?" I asked.
"Made it more sensitive and gave it triggers. Instead of being the weak drone, the example to the world of what Hydra could do, the triggers make you into Her." Bucky added on.
"And give you purple blood." Clint nodded.
"Thanks, Clint. Thanks." I glared at him. "I needed the reminder that I'm weird . . . from the circus sharpshooter."
"Any time." He chuckled. "But, my point was, I think that should be your name."
"Amygdala?" Bucky asked.
"It does fit. Nice Super name." Clint responded.
I wriggled in my seat, staring out the window. "Problem is, I don't want a Super name. I don't want to utilize what they did."
"Not even to fight them?" Bucky asked, eyes narrowed.
"Not even to battle satan. I want to put Her away, marry you formally, have a purple baby with a Vibranium arm, and die like a normal person." I muttered, taking a chug of the lukewarm coffee.
Bucky smiled, amused. "I'd love a purple baby with a Vibranium arm . . . But we can have that, Maisie Jo, and destroy the people that hurt us. Though, we should probably do the latter first. Keep our purple baby safe." He continued smiling as he rubbed my knee.
"If I wanted to keep fighting, I'd go back to SHIELD and let them have us both. I live in my coworkers house not out of choice, my love." I retorted. "It's because they don't want you - or me, I'd guess - back where we came from. Definitely not SHIELD, not Brooklyn, probably no where in public."
"He's actually from Shelbyville, Indiana, but Shelbyville probably doesn't want you either." Clint muttered as he put his laptop on the coffee table. Bucky and I both glared at him. "Any time." He smiled.
I looked back at Bucky. He pursed his lips. "Greater good and all that, darling. Greater good and purple babies. That's what we have to fight for."
"I've fought my whole life for the greater good, Bucky! My whole damn life! And I want to be done now! I want you here with me, drinking coffee in the morning and listening to old records for hours. I want what Laura and Clint have, minus the husband that leaves to fight bad guys. I just want you. I don't want battle scars and the greater good. I want us safe more than anything, to make the world safe, but I can't lose you in the process!"
Couldn't. Could not let him, would not go myself.
"Maisie, we might need him. We'd love to have you back if you'd come . . . but we need anyone we can get our hands on now." Clint said softly.
I turned to face him completely, my feet on the floor. Bucky looked at the floor. I looked back at Bucky.
"What are you talking about? What's happening now?" I demanded. "Didn't you just defeat someone?"
"Ultron." Clint corrected. "Yes, about a year ago. That's how long you've been out of this, Maisie. You would know, these things don't have a schedule. We got him, and we lost a lot. A lot, Maisie. And I wanted to leave so I wouldn't remember . . . who we lost . . . but I can't lose anyone else, I can't let anyone else lose anyone either. That's why I fight, and why we have to keep fighting, no matter what it is."
"Just tell me who it is." I crossed my arms, sitting back.
Clint licked his lips, looking down at his folded hands. "Tony."
"What? No." I chuckled harshly. "No way."
"And JARVIS and Rhody and Natasha and a kid from Queens and the King of Wakanda." Clint listed, taking in a deep breath.
"Well, damn." I breathed. "What's going on with you guys?"
Clint stood up and grabbed a stack of papers from a bookshelf, then dropped them on the coffee table in front of me.
The Sokovia Accords
As he sat back down, I looked between him and the papers.
"Last year, there was a big battle in Sokovia. Big battle. With Ultron, Tony's stupid robot thing. There was a lot to do with that. Lots of details. You can look up the Wikipedia later. But the damage, the threat of it all, was overwhelming, and one hundred odd countries wanted us to stop saving the world without their approval, because that totally makes sense." He gestured to the papers. "So there's this. Telling us what we need to do now. The rules we have to follow."
"That's bull." I breathed, flipping through the pages. "The Avengers have saved the world again and again. New York? DC? Literally every time an evil power has come against the world? They've saved the world multiple times. And now you have to wait five to seven business days to defeat the next Loki or Ultron? Bull."
"Tony thinks otherwise. Big liberal." Clint breathed a laugh, trying to lighten the mood. Didn't work. "It's going hand in hand with something I never wanted to tell you two . . . The reason I went to get you." He looked at his hands again, then stood up and clasped them behind his back. He licked his lips and breathed in deeply.
Bucky and I watched intently. My heart was about to come out my mouth.
"When they went to Vienna to sign the Accords, a suicide bomb was set off. It killed T'Chaka, the former king of Wakanda . . . and they're blaming it on Bucky. The entire world is more aware and afraid of you than ever. No one cared too much when you and Maisie escaped, but now that they've seen this, the world is scared. Everyone wants you dead."
I pursed my lips and smacked the side of Bucky's head, less playfully this time. "And you want to put yourself in the crossfire, dumbass."
Bucky seemed unfazed, still looking at Clint. "I was in Illinois the whole time. I never left that house. Why would they blame me?"
"I believe you. With every fiber of me. But security camera footage says a man that looks just like you did it. And we don't know who." Clint answered, sticking his hands in his pockets. "And we need you to fight with us. Both of you. We'll keep you away from SHIELD, you just have to do the fighting."
I inhaled deeply. "Who's on our side?"
"Cap, Sam, and a few new guys. And me. And only the two of you are on the same level as Steve here." He looked me dead in the eye. "You can say no, and I'd understand why, but you two could be vital pieces in this chess game. This could mean you finding safety. Once and for all."
"What does Tony want? Why is this a fight?" I asked.
Clint laughed bitterly. "Because Steve made it a fight. He's protecting the two of you. Mostly Bucky, for obvious reasons, decades of history there, friends for life, all that, but also you. Because you have the same mission, you and Steve."
"Protecting Bucky at all costs." I affirmed. "All costs."
"Steve's stubbornness made it physical. Tony believes the news, and he wants Bucky taken in too. And he's not letting it go." Clint continued.
I just shook my head. "I'm in."
Bucky's eyes darted to me. "What?"
"Protect you. At all costs. That's been my mission for a while now. I can't stop now, I suppose. Even if that puts a pause on the purple baby plan . . . What's wrong?" I asked, scooting closer to him and pushing his hair back to see his slightly green complexion.
"Tony Stark, right?" He asked, looking between Clint and I. "Howard Stark's son?"
I nodded.
Bucky swallowed, then gagged, covering his mouth with his hand. He shook his head, looking back at the floor. "I did something a while ago . . . It's not going to help."
"We know, Bucky. He doesn't, but Cap and I do."
His breathing picked up as he hid his face in his hands. I looked up at Clint with mouth agape. Clint shook his head quickly, eyes wide. We'd talk later. Bucky sighed deeply and looked at me.
"Are you sure, Maisie? Very, very sure?" He asked, lips pursed. I nodded. Bucky looked back at Clint. "I'm in too."
Clint uncrossed his arms and looked between us both. "I'll let Cap know."