"Gale, you make coffee?" Sam walks into the kitchen and you automatically snag another mug from the cupboard and pour a second cup of the hot liquid for your friend.
"Yeah, but none of it's for you," You tease, holding both mugs to your chest before you hand one over. He takes a sip and lets out a moan.
"God you make the best coffee," Sam grins, "What the hell did we do before you got here?"
"Drank Roger's shit water," Natasha breezes by you to the now half filled pot, "Spar later Gale?"
"Mm, you're on," You sip your own coffee as Barnes walks in, he sees you and his expression instantly sours.
"Great," He mutters, heading towards the fridge. "HYDRA's in the kitchen."
"Well it wasn't until you showed up," You shoot back, setting your mug behind you on the counter. There was a 50/50 chance your remark would start a fight and you wanted to salvage your coffee if you could.
"The fuck did you just say to me?" Barnes whips around, and he's in your face in a second. Sam and Natasha both take a step back, holding their mugs to their faces to hide their smiles.
"Ten on Gale." You hear Sam mutter under his breath to Nat.
"Nothing Soldat," You smirk and the odds shoot up to 100%. You duck to the side as his metal fist hits where your head was just a moment prior, the wood of the overhead cabinets splinters, raining wood down into your cup. There goes that. You aim a kick at his head, and his body slams into the fridge leaving a large dent in the metal. He lunges and you and you leap out of the way before sweeping his feet out from under him. He grabs your wrist as he falls and flings you away from him, Natasha and Sam are both forced to duck as you fly over them, landing on the dining room table which cracks under your weight. You leap back over the counter, wrapping your legs around Barnes' neck and bring him to the ground once more then leap nimbly back before he can get a hold of you. He's on his feet in an instant and swings a punch, you grab his metal hand in yours, and he shoves you away before kicking you square in the chest, sending you into the cabinets once more. Your head bounces off the bottom edge and you knock the coffee pot to the ground as you fall, landing unsteadily on your feet while the coffee pot shatters.
"Are you fucking kidding me?" Tony rounds the corner into the kitchen, "Wilson, Romanov, were you just going to watch them destroy the kitchen?"
"We were...waiting for an opportunity," Sam pulls a chunk of wood out of his coffee cup and flicks it away while Natasha bites back a grin. Barnes shoots you one more glare before he turns around, storming out of the kitchen.
"Sorry Tony," You step nimbly over the pooling coffee, brushing sawdust from your shirt. "Barnes." You say in way of explanation.
"No, not Barnes, that's not going to cut it," Tony crosses his arms, "Two weeks ago you two broke the glass wall in Bruce's lab, last week you destroyed one of the training rooms, yesterday you broke the t.v. in the lounge. Now the kitchen? F.R.I.D.A.Y. tell Rogers to get his star-spangled-ass up here, now." You cross your arms and lean back against the counter, watching passively as Natasha and Sam slip out the door just as Steve walks in.
"Stark what do you-" He stops and looks around the room and sighs. "Again?"
"I was literally making coffee," You gesture to the shattered remains of the coffee pot, "He's a fucking animal." Steve closes his eyes, taking a deep breath.
"I'll talk to him," Steve says shaking his head.
"Yeah," Tony pops his sunglasses on, rubbing at his forehead "See that you do. You," he looks up at you, "Go do something productive. Jesus. F.R.I.D.A.Y. get someone here to fix the cabinets, and order a new coffee pot. And table. And fridge." He shoots you a dirty look before turning and walking out of the room. You let out a breath, and grab a bottle of water out of the dented fridge. Your usual training room had been the one destroyed, so you head over to the one that was least likely to have Barnes in it. Natasha is already there, stretching out against the wall.
"Thought you'd come here," She smirks, "Blowing off some steam?"
"Hey, at least I don't need to warm up." You spar with Natasha for a few hours, which is always enjoyable, even if you have to pull your punches a little. Steve would be your ideal opponent, but he spent most of his time with Barnes and you joining the two of them was definitely not an option. Still, Natasha was fast, well trained and could hold her own in a fight.
"Think he'll ever chill?" You ask as the two of you are putting away the various weapons from your training session back where they belong.
"Barnes? I honestly don't know. I think you're a constant reminder of a past he's trying to forget. If your positions were reversed would you be able to trust him?"
"Yes," You say immediately, "I saw his face when they wiped him for the last time, I saw remorse in his eyes. I know he's not one of them."
"Has he ever seen that in you? Did you ever give him a hint when you worked together that you were anything more than the mindless soldier that you were meant to be?" You frown and Natasha gives you a reassuring smile, "Worse case scenario Stark just kicks you both to the streets."
"Right, thanks," You roll your eyes, snatching up your water bottle, "I think the worst case scenario is that one of us kills each other at this point."
"You don't have to push him back you know," Natasha grabs your bottle and takes a sip, "Thanks-You could just ignore him."
"I try!" She gives you a look and you backpedal, "Okay, not really-he just gets under my skin Nat. I mean, you trust me, right?"
"You've saved my ass too often for me to not trust you, but we don't have the history you and Barnes do. Honestly, I think he needs to crawl out of his own ass. If it wasn't for Steve he'd be imprisoned, or more likely dead at this point. He almost killed all of us at one point or another, but we all consider it in the past. He can't do that for some reason. Maybe just try a little harder to keep your cool?"
"Yeah, yeah," You wave your hand dismissively, "I'll see what I can do." You part ways and head up to your room for a shower. When you're done you wander back down to the lounge where Sam is spread out across the couch, flipping through the t.v. channels.
"Don't you usually spend Sundays in Stark's lab?" Sam asks as you perch on the sofa by his feet.
"He's not particularly happy with me at the moment," You respond, "Figured I'd give him some time to cool off."
"Man, you and Barnes in a room together," Sam shakes his head and chuckles, "It's like throwing two rabid dogs in a closet. I don't know what the hell happened between you before you came here but jesus."
"Nothing," You frown, "We worked together sometimes, but not that closely, and we didn't have any contact in between missions. We have a history, but we don't have a history."
"See, I pictured you two as secret lovers, cosying up together on cold Russian nights between assassinations-until one day, you betray him and break his heart-he's almost forgotten about you and then boom! You show up here and-"
"Okay okay," You cut him off, "That is some imagination you have there. I can promise you that Barnes and I were not in some clandestine romance that ended badly."
"Damn," Sam grins, "Guess you must just have been a huge bitch then."
"Sam!" You laugh, "Don't forget that I am a biologically enhanced super assassin, and know about a million ways to kill you with any item in this room."
"Yeah, yeah," He waves you off, "You and everyone else in this place. You coming to Sunday dinner? It's my turn to cook. It's going to be amazing."
"After this morning?" You roll your eyes and stand up, "Yeah, no thanks. Save me some leftovers maybe?"
"If there's anything left I'll bring you a plate."
"Mm, you're the best," You call over your shoulder as you walk out the door. Luckily you manage to get to your room without world war three breaking out.
It was so frustrating that you constantly had to tiptoe around the compound lest you and Barnes end up in too close of proximity to one another. After your first fight and Steve's interjection he had stopped tailing you all the time and now worked to actively avoid you. Steve would never let him skip Sunday dinner, so you did the world a favor and kept to your room during those meals, despite Wanda and Sam's protests.
You change out of your coffee stained pants and into a pair of sweats before collapsing onto your bed. You grab your latest book from your nightstand and crack it open; it'll be a few hours before Sam or Wanda come up with your food. You hoped it was Wanda-you could use a girl's night after your run in with tall dark and angry-but lately you noticed she had been spending more and more of her nights with a certain android. She claimed they were just friends, but you had definitely seen Vision disappear through her wall late at night several times in the past few weeks.
Between Nat and Bruce, Tony and Pepper, Wanda and Vis, and Steve and Sharon, you had been seeing a lot of romances all at different stages. It made you wonder if there was someone out there for you. If you would ever or could ever have something like that. You throw your arms over your face and groan-you needed to banish all thoughts like that. Dating was definitely not a priority for you, and as long as HYDRA was still out there, it wasn't even something you could consider.
