Y/N stand in front of her mirror, her new working clothes clutching to her body like it's made for her. It's a black dress which reaches to her knees. Thankfully she doesn't have to wear an apron. The dress has little thin lines running in zigzag pattern around the bottom. She has to admit that it looks nice and doesn't feel like work clothes. She has a name tag attached to her left breast and nice black sneakers. She combs her hair while she admires her outfit and puts it up into a ponytail, so it doesn't get in the way while she works. She gives herself a last proud look to her appearance, then she grabs her bag and gets on her way to the tower.
As she steps in she's immediately greeted with a mess. The main hall she just cleaned yesterday looks like a war zone. Smashed glass lies around, holes in the walls are to be seen, and some of them too big to be caused from bullets and all the Avengers are down there. Steve and Sam Wilson are holding down a man with dark, long hair, whose face Y/N can't see. He's wrestling and struggling to get free. Natasha Romanoff and Clint Barton helped an out of it Tony Stark to sit on one of the couches and a silently nervous Bruce Banner comes out of an elevator with a bag in hand. He crouches down beside Steve and seems to inject the brown haired man something. A few seconds later he stops struggling and grunting and goes limp. Everybody sighs in relive. Sam slumps down on the ground while Steve stand back up, puts his hand on his hips and stares at the ceiling while turning around. Then his gaze meets Y/N's. "Y/N!" Every head in the room shots up and is directed at her. She blushes and takes a step back while Steve comes up to her. "How long have you been here? Did you get injured?" He hovers over her and searches for any kind of injury. Y/N manages to shake her head, her gaze directs on the unconscious man on the floor. Then she lifts her hand and points at him. "Is he okay?" Steve turns and throws a swift look at him. "Bucky will be okay in a bit." He turns back to her again and lays his hand on her shoulders. "You sure you're okay?"
"Yeah. I just got here. What happened here? This is a mess." She gestures around the room and her eyes meet the ones of Tony. "Ah, well. Seems Bucky got a bad nightmare. He was a little out of control after waking up. You know him, do you? That he was used to..."
"To get brainwashed, I know. Didn't think I would see him, though." Her gaze wanders back to the man on the floor and makes a step forward, but Steve lays a hand on her shoulder again. "Let him be. He needs his space, especially when he wakes up later." She looks at Steve but nods. The thought of Bucky being alone makes her sad, but then she reminds herself that she doesn't even know this man. Why do I care about him like this?
A clearing throat gets her back out of her stupor. "It's nice to see that you accepted the promotion." Y/N looks up at Tony who now stands up on slightly shaking legs and makes his way to her. "May I introduce you? This is Y/N. She's our new personal cleaning girl"; he gestures at her and looks at the remaining teammates. Then he turns to her gain. "I figure you know everybody here."
"I do. It's nice to meet you", Y/N feels herself blush as all the eyes fix on her. "I hope it doesn't look like this upstairs, because if, so I'm gonna quit right away." She looks around the room again as the whole room laughs. Tony claps her on the back, again a little too hard, so she stumbles right into Steve, who's still standing slightly in front of her. He catches her and smiles at her, his hands on her hips. Y/N feels herself blush even more, and she's sure know that she looks like a tomato, so she refuses to look at his face and directs her eyes down to her shoes instead. He releases her again and just stands next to her. They all gather their things up, while Steve and Sam grab Bucky to get him into one of Bruce's labs. Natasha and Clint walk to the elevator while Tony turns to Y/N again. "C'mon. I'll show you around."
* * *
It had taken an hour for Y/N to get around all the floors and to see which room belongs to whom. Tony had given her a list with rules to follow, which included all the rules the Avengers had for their own rooms. While Steve doesn't have any rules; Clint ordered her to never touch his bow and arrows. Natasha said she can clean everything as well as Sam. Tony won't let her in his lab at all and about his rooms, she has to discuss everything with Pepper, while Bruce said he has just a few areas in his lab she is allowed in. He's barely in his room, so she could clean whenever she wants. Wanda and Vision, who Y/N hadn't seen yet, wants to clean their rooms themselves, so she isn't allowed in them, either. That left just Bucky. His name isn't listed, so Y/N had asked Tony about it, but he answered that she can't get in his room yet and that she has to talk to him personally. If he talks to her that is.
After Tony told her to just get familiar with the rooms and the equipment she now has, he introduced her to FRIDAY. Y/N can ask the AI for everything she wants to know or things she needs.
Now she's wandering around the different floors. As she walks past the common room she decides to step in. It's empty, nobody is there. She walks up to the big panorama window and lets her gaze fly over the city. The view is unbelievable and Y/N thinks that she can stay here forever. Her room, which Tony had shown her earlier, has an amazing view, too (it is in one of the highest floors, so of course the view is nice) but this is not to top. A hand touches her shoulder, and she jumps, throwing her hands around in shock. "Ow!" She turns and sees Steve standing behind her, holding his face with one hand. "Oh god. I'm sorry." She holds her hands up and tries to shove Steve's away from his face to look at it, but was glad as she discovers that the skin was just a little red. He waves his hand at her concern and smiles. "It serves me right. I scared you again." Y/N laughs and gestures to the sitting area of the room. Steve slides on one couch while she goes and grabs a cooling pack from the fridge. "You don't have to. It doesn't even hurt."
"It's okay. It's my fault that I hit you." A shadow lets her look up and her eyes meet the blue ones of the Winter Soldier himself. He stands there, looking unsure of what to do, arms crossed and expression grim as he stares at her. Y/N decides to be polite and throws him a smile, but the brown-haired man stares a moment longer then turns around and leaves. She frowns at the empty space before her eyes drift back to Steve. "Don't worry. He just needs some time to adjust to new people. Eventually he will warm up to you."
"Isn't he-", she stops mid sentence and shakes her head. "Is he okay now?"
"What do you mean?" Steve looks confused at her and lets the cooling pack slide down to his lap. "You said that he has troubles after walking up." Steve's mouth forms an O shape, and he nods in understanding. "He needs some time to cool down. It's hard for him after a rough night."
"I'm sorry to hear that. I learned a few things about him back in school. I have to admit that I'm amazed at what he lived through and despite all that tries to live a normal live again. I don't think many people would manage that." Steve stares at her with a blank face before he blinks a few times. "You're not scared?"
"No. Why should I?"
"Because he's literally the most dangerous man in the whole world."
"He may be, but I don't think he would hurt someone. Besides, I'm in the safest place I can be, right? I doubt that some of you would let him near me if you think he would try to kill me at any second." Steve nods at that. "Right. I see what Tony means." Y/N cocks her head in question at that, but Steve just smiles at her. "What was it, you wanted to say?"
"What?"
"Before that, what were you about to ask?"
"Oh." She blushes again and looks behind Steve. "I, eh... I don't know. I think I feel a little emphatic and was asking myself if he doesn't feel lonely. 'Dunno where this came from." As her eyes meet the blue ones of Steve, they look kind to her. "He does, I think. He warmed up to everybody else, but he mostly keeps to himself or joins me in the training area. Sometimes Sam joins us, but he never talks with him. They don't get along that well, even of most of it is just more saying than meaning. But it gets better. I'm sure." Y/N looks at him for a moment, a faint smile grazing her face. They talk for a while before he retreats back to his room.
* * *
The next few days fly by in no time. She gets used to her new job and finds that it makes more fun than it ever did before she got promoted, mostly because she could hear music all the time and nobody really bothers to talk to her while she was working. She had made a schedule for herself how to clean the rooms and common areas. Today the top of this list is the common room. She sweeps the floors and cleans the couches and tables. Then she looks at the bar and cleans the glasses, makes the kitchen clean again, because whoever made breakfast didn't bother to put his stuff away again. The next points on her list are the private rooms. She figures she starts with the first one on the next floor which is Steve's. She knocks and as she gets no answer she steps in carefully. "Steve? It's Y/N. I'm here to clean up?" She waits but gets no answer, so she rolls her new carriage into the room and looks around. Steve's room would count as a two room flat in itself. The living room area is bigger than Y/N's entire flat she lives in. "FRIDAY?"
"Yes, Miss Y/N?"
"Where's Steve?"
"Captain Rogers is currently located in the training room, together with Sergeant Barnes and Mr. Wilson", the AI answers with a friendly voice. "Ok, could you turn on some music?"
"Of course, Miss Y/N. I allowed myself access to your mobile to play some of your favorite music." True to her word a song plays loud through the room. Y/N smiles to herself and starts to sing along, while she sweeps every surface with a broom and a wet rag to get rid of the dust and dirt. She's in the third song when she turns around and stops. Steve stands in the door, mouth wide open and staring at her, while she stares at him for a moment. Then he clears his throat and calls out to the AI to stop the music. The silence that follows is a bit awkward, because none of them knows what to say. A blush creeps on her face as Steve shakes his head and gives her a polite smile. "You have a nice voice."
"Th-thank you", she stammers and curses herself for not closing the door before starting to work. "I, eh, I can leave if you want to be alone." She looks around and gathers up some stuff she had laid down while cleaning. "No, please. It's okay." He gestures around and steps further into the room. "I'm actually glad that you're cleaning up here. I don't have the time to do so and it's really a mess." She smiles at him and lays the broom back down. Steve looks at her for a moment, smiles and then grabs a folder which lies on his coffee table. "I forgot this." His face turns a light shade of pink while he smiles again. Then he gestures to the door. "I better go back. See you around. Sorry again." With that he's gone. Y/N's stunned and looks at the empty door frame. Then she shrugs and gets back to cleaning up. After she cleaned his room she makes her way through Clint's, Natasha's and Sam's. It actually got quite late as she leaves Sam's room, and she considers if it's a good time to make use of the room Tony had prepared for her to use. She decides against it and goes home instead. This was her workplace after all.
* * *
The next few months are uneventful. She still doesn't talk to anybody except if someone stumbles into her while she's cleaning and still then it remains mostly in small talk. Some of them try to get to know her better, but she just answers in short sentences, so the others figured if she was up to talking or not. Natasha had tried more aggressive so Y/N found herself talking with her and Steve more often. Natasha even told her to call her Nat. FRIDAY had prepared a whole playlist just for her to use. Y/N had brought some decorations for her room in the tower to make it a bit friendlier if she decides to stay there, which up until now had happened just two times, because of parties Tony had insisted for her to join. She had stayed a few hours before retreating to her room and brooding over the mess they had created, which she was forced to clean up the next day. She has managed to get some sympathy for all of them, but she still hated them if they threw parties without any reason. Steve has stumbled into her a few times while she was singing, so she gave it up and just hummed to stop awkward silence between the two. Y/N even sees Bucky a few times. She tries to talk to him, but he never really talks back. A few times he nods or shakes his head before he runs off again. She thought that he smiled at her once, but changed her mind as soon as the thought came. It seems the Winter Soldier doesn't like her very much, because he tries to avoid her. He turns around and walks back to where he comes from if he sees her or rushes past her without much looking. She gets a bit of an idea how the others must feel when they try to talk to her. Her behavior is similar.
Y/N had the weekend off and had met up with her brothers to talk about the last months they didn't have seen each other. She just arrived a few minutes ago, and she's already making her way into the common room. Today she wants to clean the windows. She places a bucket with water and the wiper in front of the panorama window, then she walks out again and picks up the vacuum cleaner and starts cleaning the floor. She dances to the rhythm of the song which FRIDAY has playing for her and pays no attention to her surroundings. A few times she thinks she has seen a shadow walking past her, but every time she looks up and watches closely she finds that she doesn't sees anybody or anything suspicious, so she gets back to cleaning the floor. As she finishes she admires her work before gazing at the dirty windows. It's time to clean them. Tony has promised to get her something which made it easier and quicker to clean them up, but he didn't come up with something until now. She doesn't really mind. The windows have to be cleaned once a month and that she can handle even if she has to use the old things they have to do so.
She grabs the bucket and the wiper and starts to clean everything up. She struggles to get on the top of the windows, so she glances around the room and grabs a chair, places it in front of the window and climbs up. She leans a bit more to the right to get a few extra inches as she hears something clatter behind her. She turns around a little too fast and sees the vacuum cleaner falling down. She loses her balance on the soft seat, starts to sway a bit and feels her ankle twist as she tries to get her balance back. Y/N feels herself falling and closes her eyes. She expects it to hurt when she hits the ground but it is a soft thud. Carefully she peels an eye open and then throws them open fully as she looks straight into the face of Bucky who crouches beside her, holding her still in his arms. He looks at her a bit angrily before he releases her and stands up to sit on one of the couches. He crosses his arms as her glares at her. "I- Thank you." He nods, but makes no move to leave the room. Instead, he looks at her. Y/N can't other than to think that she sees some curiosity in his eyes, so she stands up but regrets it as a searing pain flicks through her ankle. She hisses and sits down again. Suddenly hands touch her ankle. She never thought that Bucky could be so gentle, but now she stares at him as he inspects her ankle and walks away before he returns with a package of frozen peas and presses it on her ankle, which is swelling fast. While she holds it in place he goes back to sitting on the couch and gets back to glaring at her. Y/N looks between her ankle and the couch. "May I sit?" Bucky looks at the empty space beside him and shrugs his shoulders before he nods once again. Carefully she walks up to him and sits down beside him, paying attention to leave some room between them. She learned early that Bucky didn't like it if someone was too close, and he had no way of escape. "That shocked me." She giggles a little, but stops short as a raw deep voice starts to speak. "That was careless. You could have got hurt." She stares at him as he turns his head at her. "What? Just because I do not talk often doesn't mean I can't."
"No!" She waves her hands in front of him and almost hits his face, but he grips them and pushes them down to the pea bag. She blushes a bit and starts talking once again. "I never thought you couldn't speak. I just figured you don't like me that much and just don't want to talk to me. I didn't expect you to talk to me now. It surprised me, that's all." Bucky grunts and looks down at his feet. "It's not that I don't like you. I just don't know you."
"I understand that. You don't have to justify yourself." He looks up at her again. His eyes are scanning her for a moment before a smirk appears on her face. "Stevie said you had a nice voice. He's right." Y/N blushes hard and looks down on her own hands which are still in his grip. She feels her cheeks heat up even more. He was flirting with her. He never talks but now he flirts with her? "You have some nice moves as well. I saw you dancing." Y/N rips her hand from his and buries her head in them. "That's embarrassing. That wasn't meant to be seen."
"Then you should avoid doing it in the open field." She peeks at him through her fingers. Bucky is looking out of the window, and she's sure now that he has a blush on his cheeks as well. "I'm just saying"
"Well you're right." Their eyes meet and Y/N smiles shyly at him. And he smiles back.
They talk for a while and stop just as the others come in. They stare at the two, but a smile appears on Steve's face and Y/N thinks that his expression shows some relief. Sam and Clint even give her a thumbs up. Tony just frowns at the chair by the window, hits one fist in his other hand and vanishes back in the hall they just came from. Y/N talks a lot to the other Avengers until deep in the night. It's the first night Y/N uses her room in the tower without Tony throwing a party.