AS Bucky and I had both fallen asleep by the third Harry Potter movie, we vowed to continue our marathon the day after. So when I hear my elevator door open as the clock blinks 12:47 am, I'm not surprised.
What does surprise me, however, is how Bucky is carrying so much candy that he can barely see in front of him.
"Bucky what are you- What?" I stutter as he struggles to make his way down the three steps that link the slightly elevated platform of the kitchen to the sunken living area.
"Since I've taken so much food from you for a while now, I thought I should return the favour," Bucky places the enormous pile of food onto the opposite end of the couch before taking a seat next to me.
"That's sweet- A while? How often do you sneak onto my floor, Barnes?" I eye him suspiciously, crossing my arms over my chest. His eyes widen ever so slightly at me before turning back around and pulling two large blankets from the pile of sweets.
"It's cold, so I got us blankets, too," Bucky says, shoving the blankets into my hands and I can do nothing but allow my lips to turn up into a small smile and roll my eyes. "I'll go make us some popcorn," Bucky says, grabbing a box of popcorn sachets from the pile and heading towards the microwave, not before ruffling my hair and causing my bun to come loose – my hair falling in front of my face.
"Bucky!" I whine, clicking my phone on so I can readjust my hair.
"Keep your hair down!" He protests as I fish the hair tie from my mangled hair, ruffling it so it falls down my shoulders.
"What, so we match?" I laugh, sliding the hair tie around my wrist and twirling my hair into a bun. Bucky turns to me and sends me a glare before replying.
"No, you look cute," He says smoothly before turning his attention back to the popcorn sachet as he attempts to understand how it works.
Bucky's head quickly turned back to look at me, with rushed, wide eyes as his mouth opened to speak. "Not that your hair isn't cute when it's done up! I just think it looks nice down, too!" He assured me, sending a lopsided smile before turning back to the microwave, yet again.
Blushing, I allow my hair to fall back down to my shoulders.
-
Strained groans fell from my lips as I struggle to lift my head up from the couch, my left leg being compressed by a heavy force whilst the other dangles off of the couch. As I attempt to tug my leg out of it's confined space, a string of profanities is muttered from not far in front of me.
I soon realise the heavy force is Bucky.
Sighing heavily, I continue to shake my leg from underneath him, causing him to wake up with a distasteful expression spread over his face.
"I would very much appreciate if you didn't try to break my back, Stark," he mumbles tiredly, running his hand over his face.
"If you didn't put your enormous body weight on my leg we wouldn't have this problem, Barnes," I retort, equally tired.
A simple grunt was all that followed, along with a shift of Bucky's body weight - enabling me to retrieve my leg.
"You hungry?" I sit up, making sense of my surroundings before heading into the kitchen. "I have Lucky Charms," I lift up the new box of the cereal and watch as Bucky turns his nose up in disgust.
"You don't like Lucky Charms?" I gasp, holding the box close to me in disbelief.
"Never had 'em," Bucky shrugs his shoulders.
"Then you have no right to judge," I snootily hold my head up.
"Oh c'mon, it looks like a toothache stuffed in a box," Bucky protests, holding his arm out.
"Last night you ate a literal toothache in a box, James." I give him a dead look before reaching across the counter to grab an empty box of nerds. "The hell is this? It's pure sugar, Barnes," I raise my eyebrows at him as I pour two bowls of cereal. "You're eating some damn lucky charms and you're going to enjoy it, Super Soldier," I state and he chuckles softly, nodding.
"Yes Ma'am," he gives me a small salute as he groggily makes his way over to the kitchen, taking a seat at the breakfast bar.
Sliding him the bowl of cereal, I watch Bucky intently as he shovels a large spoonful of the sugary cereal into his mouth.
"Well?" I prompt him.
"It's good," he mumbles with a mouthful of food, sending me a quick glance before turning his attention back to his bowl.
"Damn right it is," I retort, causing him to laugh as I begin eating my cereal, too.
-
"Run over the rules with me again," I order my father, my suit whirring as I gesture for him to continue.
"Okay, so it's called Extreme Volleyball," Dad starts, holding up a bowling ball he snatched from the bowling alley on Natasha's floor.
"I got the idea of using the bowling ball from FRIENDS, and I spent weeks making the net," Dad explains, looking up at the net that was hovering in the middle of the living area. "I don't think we should set it on fire though," Dad looks down at the bowling ball in his hand, furrowing his brows.
"Why does this have to be on my floor?" I whine, catching the bowling ball as dad throws it at me.
"Because, Pepper would kill me if I damaged anything," Dad explains.
"And I won't get pissed if you damage something on my floor?" I question, placing a hand on my hip.
"You're my kid, can't stay mad at me forever," Dad shrugs. "Now, let's play!" He throws his hands up in the air. Rolling my eyes at my Father's enthusiasm, I follow him at flying up so my head's a few feet from hitting the roof and throw the bowling ball over the net for dad to hit.
"What happens if we like, destroy my floor?" I question as Dad volleys the ball over the net and I hit it back to him.
Dad only shrugs before hitting the ball, hard, back to me. Flying straight past my head, It smashes into my television and falls to the floor, indenting the hardwood flooring.
"Dad! What the hell?" I shriek, throwing my hands up in the air.
"I'll fix it," Dad quickly interrupts me before I begin screaming at him.
"You better," I mumble, grabbing the bowling ball from the floor and serving it over the net.
"Is hitting a bowling ball going to harm our suits?" I question as we continue to hit the ball back and forth.
Dad shrugs. "Probably, but I'll fix it," Dad brushes it off and I huff. A few seconds pass before Dad spikes the bowling ball down onto my side of the net and plummeting onto the floorboards. A large indent shows up on the floor and I lift my mask off of my head just so Dad can see the dead glare I send him.
"Hey! I'll get it fixed! Let me just establish that everything that breaks, gets fixed," Dad rolls his eyes as my mask retracts back in front of my face.
I fly down to grab the bowling bowl and huff. "It better," I grumble as I better examine the large dent in the floorboards.
"Let's just play now, yeah?" Dad asks impatiently and I respond by quickly serving it over the net. The bowling ball quickly flys past Dad's head and straight through the wall separating the living room from my bedroom.
I enhance my vision and realise that the bowling ball had decided to land in the middle of the bed, causing it to concave.
I look up at Dad and he snorts. "It's on."
-
"What were you two thinking?!" Pepper scolds Dad and I as we stand in the middle of my barely standing floor, walls completely destroyed and my beautiful marble kitchen tabletop reduced to basically dust.
"Well Dad said anything we broke, he fixed," I attempt to loosen up my end, wincing upon realising what'd happen to Dad.
Dad responds to me throwing him under the bus with quite a harsh kick to the ankle.
"Oh did he?" Pepper raises her eyebrows at Dad, and Dad sends me a dirty look before attempting to redeem himself.
"I don't want to hear it." Pepper shuts him up. "I'm forbidding the use of suits in the building unless it's in the workshop for strictly construction purposes or it's an emergency," Pepper decides.
"What exactly is considered an emergency?" Dad questions, not taking his chances.
"If someone is trying to kill you, then it's an emergency," Pepper sighs and Dad's shoulders slouch.
"What if I'm just outside the building with my suit on but I forgot to grab, say, a bagel, in my room. Say I really wanted this bagel and I really hated the elevators-"
"No, Tony," Pepper butts in.
"Yes Ma'am," Dad mock salutes her.
"When would you ever be in that situation?" I cock my head to the side as I question my Father.
"Shut up, I'm trying to reverse the new rule," Dad mutters, his mouth comically angled to face me.
"And bagels are the way to do that?" I argue, causing Dad to wave me off.
"Stop bickering! We need to find out where Cassandra will be staying while her floor is fixed and no — you aren't moving on your own floor. You've proven that you can't be trusted,"
"But— It was—!" I attempt to blame it all on Dad but his hand goes over my mouth before I can utter another word.
"No buts, young lady," Dad attempts to parent me, causing both Pepper and myself to give him a deadpanned look.
"Okay you're right, I'm in no position to be lecturing but Steve and Bucky's floor has an extra room and I know Steve will be strict with you," Dad informs me and I huff. As much as I love Steve, there's no denying that sometimes he parents more than Dad does.
"Isn't Steve going on a mission in a couple of days?" Pepper questions.
Dad ponders for a moment before looking back up at the both of us. "Bucky's scary, right? That sort of the same as being strict, you'll be fine."