A/N: Hey guys! I found some time to update the next chapter, you're welcome! And thank god, because I need a bit of a break from my exams right now! Hope you guys enjoy it!
- Harper E. Pierce
The girls were getting ready to go shopping with the Avengers, as they needed clothes, and weren't to be trusted alone in a public place yet. They were still trainees that needed to learn to control their powers.
Most of the girls were already waiting for Quinn, with the exception of Tori, who was busy doing her hair; she had borrowed Wanda's hair dryer, because her hair was "in need of severe beautifying attention". Lexi, Lorelei, Skylar, Beatrice and Raven sat around in the living room on Quinn's floor, just waiting around and talking. Well, most of them were talking, Lexi was opting out of conversation and chose to read a book; she still didn't trust her roommates. But suddenly, Steve, Natasha and Vision stepped out of the elevator, and appeared in their living room.
"Where's Tori?" Natasha asked them.
"She still has Wanda's hair dryer, she needs to 'beautify' herself," Lorelei replied with a tone of sass.
"We were hoping that we could leave soon, now where's Quinn?" Steve told them.
"We sent her to go fetch Tori, she's been taking forever." Lexi lied.
"No, she-" Skylar was cut off by a swift impact of Lexi's foot on hers, indicting to her to keep her mouth shut.
"Thank god, you people are so slow." Natasha commented, looking at Lexi with a raised brow at her harsh movement towards Skylar. Lexi winked in return, and Natasha caught on. Vision just stood there, not even noticing was going on.
"Hey, do you mind if I use your washroom?" Steve asked.
"Sure, go right ahead." Lexi welcomed him, not even looking up from her book.
"Thanks," he ran off towards Quinn's bedroom, as it was the closest one to where they were standing, and every bedroom in the tower had an ensuite. Once he was out of earshot, Beatrice and Raven turned to Lexi.
"You know she's in the shower, right?" Beatrice asked her.
"No, is she? I thought she was in Sokovia," Lexi replied sarcastically, still not looking up from her book.
"Then what the hell was that for?" Raven asked her.
"It just felt right," Lexi replied.
"And that was painful, Lexi." Skylar told her, rubbing her foot.
"You'll get over it," she replied. The girls all gave her a demeaning look. Lexi slammed her book shut, and looked up them, "I'm giving Quinn a taste of her own medicine, jeez."
"Meh, I can see why." Lorelei let her off the hook.
"And cap needs to be corrupted a little. He's got a stick shoved up his-" Natasha was cut off by two loud screams coming from the washroom.
-
Quinn had just turned the shower water off, and opened the glass shower door, to realize she had forgotten her towel and needed to grab it from the linen section of her walk-in closet in her bedroom. It was her bedroom, it was private and the door was shut, she could walk around in it with indecency, right. Wrong.
She opened the door, and began to walk out of her bathroom when she slammed and fell right on top of a certain blonde super soldier. She both looked up to see what she had fallen onto, and ended up looking right into the Steve, who had looked at the same time.
"HOLY SHIT!" They both screamed at the same time. Quinn quickly got off of Steve, and ran towards the closed bathroom door, which she had stupidly locked herself out of. Steve stood up to see Quinn again, and he couldn't help but stare for a second. But he caught himself as Quinn turned around and caught him at the same time, and he turned away from her, cheeks burning red.
"Oh god, Quinn, I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to-"
"SHUT UP, SHUT UP, SHUT UP! HOLY SHIT!" She freaked, running towards the closet door and slamming it shut behind her. "WHY THE HELL DIDN'T YOU KNOCK?!" She yelled, running her hands through her wet hair.
"I needed to use the bathroom, and Lexi told me that you going to go and get Tori and tell her to hurry up!" He replied awkwardly defending himself. "I'm just gonna let myself out,"
"Yeah good plan," she replied very quickly after him. She heard the door to her bedroom shut, and sighed heavily. "Lexi, you're so dead," she muttered under her breath.
Steve walked in a very fast-paced manner of the room, face beet red. Natasha, Lexi, Lorelei and Tori were in hysterics, leaving Beatrice to stifle her laughter, so Skylar, Raven and Vision wouldn't get mad at her.
"That wasn't funny Lexi!" Steve shouted as he was speed walking towards the elevator.
"You're right, it wasn't. It was hilarious!" Lorelei shouted back. Steve face grew even redder as the elevator doors shut and he disappeared.
"Miss Hart, I do not think that it was very kind of you to do that to Miss Atkinson and Mr. Rogers," Vision told her.
"Lexi? Kind? Yeah right," Tori appeared out of thin air behind the couch, causing everyone to jump at her unexpected presence. She began to laugh at the girls who jumped.
"Not funny, Tori," Beatrice grumped, playfully hitting her arm. "But I do agree with you," she said. The others nodded their heads in agreement with her, and Lexi flipped them off. After waiting another half hour for Quinn, she finally came out of her bedroom, giving Lexi a death stare while coming towards her.
"You bitch!" She shouted at her. Lexi, Natasha and Lorelei began to laugh again. "You knew I was in the shower!"
"Of course I did, why do you think I did it?" Lexi mocked. Lorelei and Natasha laughed even harder, and Beatrice finally let out her hysteria and joined in.
"I thought you were better than that, Trice." Raven rolled her eyes.
"I'm better than you, and you know it." Trice retorted pridefully.
"This means war, Hart!" Quinn declared.
"Ooh, I'm so scared." Lexi's comment dripped with sarcasm. But before Quinn could continue her rage, Vision interjected.
"So now that we're all ready go, should we head down to the garage and go?" He asked.
"I think it'd be a good idea to go before they rip each other's throats out," Skylar agreed with the two Avengers.
"FRIDAY, tell everyone to meet us down in the garage." Natasha told the ceiling. The girls looked confused as to why she was talking to the ceiling. But it began to speak back.
"Sure, I'll let them know." It said. Lexi pulled a gun out of her waistband and began to shoot at the ceiling.
"MS. HART, STOP THIS!" Vision shouted loudly enough to get her attention.
"Put the gun down, it's just an AI. Her name is FRIDAY, she does things for us." The redhead explained to her. Lexi looked skeptical, but everyone in the room looked terrified of her. A pit of guilt formed in her stomach once again, and she put the gun down, without looking like she felt anything about it. "Thank you, now should we go?"
-
The Avengers drove to the New York City mall, which had insane amounts of people in it. They decided that the girls should just go off and shop for whatever, as Tony had given them each four thousand dollars to shop with. Of course, Tori whined that it wasn't enough money and that about eight thousand would be better.
The Avengers decided to try to keep watch on each of the girls when they split up to go and buy clothes. Skylar had a thing for makeup, and ended spending her first thousand at Mac and Sephora, and she used the rest for clothes at Urban Planet, Aritzia, Garage and Dynamite, and in Kate Spade, where she was dragged in by Tori, who was only shopping at the designer brands, including her own brand, VK.
Lexi picked up a few leather jackets with some jeans, with a few pairs of her favourites platform booties. While she was there, she picked up some makeup as well, and then followed Tori into a few of the designer stores, and Quinn to her favourite place, Hot Topic, just for fun. Quinn made a beeline for Hot Topic, and Spencer's, before going anywhere else. Lorelei was similar to Lexi, and they followed each other to a few of the stores as well. Raven followed everyone everywhere, as she was not picky with clothing, but did NOT want her friends picking things that were flashy, and acted as a mother-figure towards the rest of the group. She finished her shopping first, and begged the girls to hurry up, as she hated it with a seething passion. But Beatrice had a thing for skirts, which was very odd compared to the rest of the group. She had a bit more of a girly side to her sweet hint of sass, and showed off in many of her clothing choices.
Quinn decided that it would be a good idea to get back at Lexi for what she had done to her that morning. Although she thought it was funny, Lorelei thought it'd be funny to help Quinn get back at her and decided to help Quinn on her mission.
"So what's the plan?" Lorelei asked Quinn curiously.
"I'm gonna pay some guy to get a little handsy with her," Quinn smirked.
"Isn't that a little... extreme?"
"Captain America saw me naked this morning, and we haven't even been here for forty-eight hours yet!" Quinn pointed out.
"You make a fair point," Lorelei replied. "How much money do you have left?"
"About seven hundred and fifty. I'll use it to pay off some perverted stranger." Quinn told her. Lorelei nodded, and saw a fairly handsome guy passing by. There wasn't anyone with him, no girlfriend, no friends either, just him.
"What about him?" Lorelei motioned to the guy she had noticed.
"He'll do perfectly, lets just hope he has no morals," Quinn agreed as they ran up to the guy. "Excuse me?" She got his attention.
"Hi?" He replied curiously. Time for bribery.
"What would you do for seven hundred and fifty bucks?" Lorelei asked him.
"Um, anything I guess, why?"
"Even get a little handsy with a friend of mine? For a prank?" Quinn asked, to make
"God no! That's disrespectful, even for a prank. Who even are you?" He said with disdain. Quinn rolled her eyes.
"Well, we tried," Lorelei shrugged, and began to walk away, but Quinn grabbed the guy's shoulder.
"You will do this for us, and forget that you did it after it's done." she commanded, looking straight into his eyes. He nodded, as if he never said no beforehand, and went inside the store. Lorelei looked at Quinn with confusion.
"What just happened?" She asked anxiously.
"I used a little bit of that mind control power they said I possess," she smirked.
"Quinn, that's dangerous, we haven't been trained to use it yet!" Lorelei exclaimed, leaving Quinn rolling her eyes for five hundredth time that day. They went into the store to watch what was about to unfold. Lexi was just looking at clothing, picking up a t-shirt, and feeling the soft material, when the guy came up to her.
"Hell, I haven't seen someone so pretty in ages," he told her flirtatiously. Lexi rolled her eyes at him.
"Hell, I haven't met such a pushover in ages either," she replied smartly, walking away from the guy, but she felt his hand on her wrist.
"Hey don't go, angel, you haven't even told me your name yet," he complained. The plan was working.
"Get your hands off of me, asshole!" She raised her voice a little, ripping her wrist away from his grasp, and beginning to walk away again. But this time, he grabbed her by her waist, spun her around, and ran his hands down her waist to her butt. And she tried to squirm out of his grasp, but his grip was stronger. Quinn began to feel a pit in her stomach. Maybe Lorelei was right, using her powers while untrained was stupid. This was NOT was she wanted him to do.
"Quinn, do something!" Lorelei pressured her.
"I can't! It wasn't supposed to go this far! I only asked him to get a little handsy with her, not full on assault!" Quinn exclaimed anxiously. This wasn't going to end well.
"I told you using your powers was stupid!" Lorelei whisper-shouted at her. They turned their attention back to Lexi and the guy she had compelled.
"Kiss me, angel." He told her, as he leaned in. Lexi squirmed even more, and she began to feel afraid. She wasn't afraid of him, she could take him on easily; she was afraid of losing control, letting her alter ego take over, and killing him. That wasn't her, not anymore. She wasn't HYDRA's plaything.
But a swift and sudden movement of a fist coming into contact with the man's face freed her, and he stumbled back and fell to the floor. She heard a loud crack as it happened, and man's nose began to pour blood. She looked over to see who it that punched the guy; Bucky.
"Get the hell out of here you piece of shit, before I break every bone in your body," he threatened him darkly. The guy nodded, and ran away quite fast. Lexi looked back up to Bucky, who had grabbed her upper arm and dragged her outside of the store, with a dark and threatening look on his face. Lexi was trying to fight him off, but he wasn't budging at all. Once they were far enough from the store, he positioned her in front of him.
"Let the hell go of me!" She yelled, finally ripped her arm free.
"Can you just stay of trouble for one goddamn second?!" He shouted back.
"Oh excuse me, Barnes, for being an untrusting bitch who get herself in shitty and murderous situations. I'm sure you have NO idea how that feels," she replied angrily. Bucky even looked the slightest bit hurt by her "Do me a favour, stay out of my way. I can take care of myself!" She pushed past him and stormed off. Bucky just leaned against the wall they stood near, running a hand through his hair and sighing.
"Having a problem?" Raven appeared out from around the corner.
"No," he grumbled.
"You know, I may be a trainee, but I am a certified psychologist. You can talk to me," she suggested.
"I'm compelled to help her, and I don't know why, she frustrates the hell out of me," he told her honestly, "but I feel like I know how she feels,"
"You clearly do," Raven said to him, "Lexi's been through hell, we all have."
"But you all seem fairly normal, coming out of what happened. Why is she so... different from the rest of you?"
"I couldn't tell you that. Maybe some of us are just better at hiding it? Maybe HYDRA may have done something different to her, but I don't know for sure. Maybe once we all get to know each other, we'll be able to share our secrets." Raven replied.
"Thanks... what's your name again?"
"It's Raven. You're Bucky, right?"
"Yeah,"
"Just saying, it was Quinn who tipped off the guy to get a little handsy with her. I don't know exactly what happened, but I know that she and Lorelei came back to meet up with us, and she was freaking out that her prank went too far."
"Why doesn't that surprise me?"
"I don't know, maybe because it's Quinn?"
"Yeah, you're probably right about that," he sighed, "thanks for the talk, Raven."
"No problem," she replied. A sudden ringing went off, and Bucky pulled out his phone.
"It's Natasha, she wants us to go back to the tower now, we better go." He told her, slipping the phone back into his pocket. They met up with the rest of the team, and headed back to the new residence of the seven girls.