Song: For You by Keith Urban
So sorry I'm late! I'm going to one of my best friends' weddings and it's out of state, so I've been super busy and will continue to be the rest of the week. I'm popping this one out for you right now so that I'm not even later. I love all of the reviews, thank you so much! Also thanks to everyone who faves and follows. I know I say that every time, but I really do mean it. Also, if you read this little bit where I just talk randomly, I love you extra. I hope you all enjoy this chapter, it was so much fun to write. Any questions, comments, concerns, let me know!
"You can't just tell people what they're doing or what they're not doing, Nova," Steve broke into the conversation as Evie and Nova argued about whether or not it really counted as singeing Elise's hair if Elise was the one who ran in after the explosion and just got too close. Nova turned her attention to him immediately, wrinkling her nose in a move that drove her mother crazy.
"I did it for you, you dumbass. Do you really want to have a Christmas without your precious sidekick?" Nova asked seriously, raising an eyebrow and ignoring Steve's blatant eye roll at her use of words.
"I'm not his sidekick. That's Sam," James interrupted, pulling a startled laugh out of Nova. Sam and James had a weird relationship that Nova didn't quite understand. Mostly because she'd only seen it like once and that was over a screen. Evie had tried to explain it more than once, but it didn't quite make sense even then. Mostly, Nova got the idea that both friends were slightly in love with Steve and more than a little jealous of each other. But they didn't quite hate each other. It was more of a brotherly relationship, both of them overly protective of Steve (the little brother) and competitive for his affections.
"Would you stop ragging on Sam?" Steve complained across the screen, though Nova noted that it took him a shocked second to gather his words.
"No," James shook his head resolutely, looking down at Nova when she tilted her head back to look up at him. His blue eyes were wide and it was like he was expecting her to say something about his relationship with Sam. Then again, Nova almost always had something to say, so she couldn't really blame him for having expectations.
"Sam seems pretty cool. Maybe he'll want to stop by for Christmas too. Steve, you know what he's planning?" Nova turned back to the screen, eyeing the man who was now taking up most of the screen. Evie was fiddling with something else, probably sending an email or running a mission in her downtime. Nova wouldn't put it past her to still be working for SHIELD. No one had ever really put in her resignation. Evie had kind of just left and Maria had accepted that. There was an open invitation back, but Nova hadn't talked to her about it yet.
"I think he's planning on being with his grandma this year. His wingman, Riley, had a sister that Sam sometimes sees on holidays too. She might be there," Steve explained. Nova vaguely knew about Sam's past as part of a pararescue unit. His wingman had been knocked out of the sky and Sam had never gotten over it. He was working through it though, and Nova figured that was important. Working through it was about ten times better than some of her family members were doing.
"That sounds sweet. I bet he's excited. You can still invite him if you want. Basically everyone is invited," Nova explained, waving a hand in the air above her head. She smacked James with it on accident, flinching away and spinning to make sure she hadn't hurt him. Thankfully, she seemed to have just hit him in the chest and he didn't look the least bit put out, instead still focused on Evie and Steve.
"Are the other Legacies coming this year?" Evie asked, leaning into Steve to see them. Nova contemplated this, not completely sure. Maggie usually sent her a list of presents to get and everything, but she hadn't yet. The family was all going to be there, that was a given, and Evie and Steve and James were all coming. Even if she had to get down on her hands and knees to beg James to go, he was so going. Tony was going to be there, absolutely. Otherwise Nova was going to steal an Ironman suit and go get him. Sharon would probably show up. Her parents had died when she was in the Academy, so Peggy had been her only relative left the last few years. They'd spent holidays together when they could and if one was busy the other came to the Dugan Christmas. Sharon was the only one left. If she wasn't working, Nova was fairly certain Sharon would show up.
The rest tended have their own family Christmases. Sometimes a stray lamb would find its way into the festivities, but Nova was almost certain that wouldn't happen if they gave out the warning of their guests early enough. No one in the Howling Commandos would be stupid enough to sneak up on a fortress that James Barnes and Steve Rogers were guarding.
"I don't know. I mean, Renee will probably be there. When she's not saving your ass on missions, she's basically the head of our medical center. And she'll want to see how you're holding up after being beaten to death. My brothers and sister will be there, along with the wife and the kids. Tony is definitely going to be there; he owes me a few Christmas gifts. Sharon might stop by since she doesn't really have anywhere to go now and Mama's definitely inviting her." Nova paused when Steve's shoulders tensed and his jaw clenched, entire posture going rigid as he pulled his arms in to cross them across his huge chest. The chair Nova was sitting in moved back on its own and she blinked up to see that James was contemplating the situation, his prosthetic on the chair. "But all the Legacies get an invite, you know how it goes. Maggie mentioned inviting your friends, Evie. If you want to invite Natasha and Sam, I'll invite Clint and badger Tony into coming. Hell, maybe we can get the wonder twins in for Christmas."
"You know what happened with Sharon…" Evie started, trailing off when Nova sent her a look.
"I know exactly what happened with Sharon. She dated your man, fed information on him to the CIA, which was her job, and he took personal offense. And I know this not because I'm BFFs with Steve, but because Sharon called to unload after it happened. Turns out that she can't trust many people to keep a secret like that. Either way, I don't see the big deal. It's not like she's tried to kill him," Nova flicked a pointed look at James, who promptly ran his hand up her hair backwards, throwing all of the messy strands over her face in retaliation for the very obvious implication that he had tried to kill Steve multiple times and they were best friends still. "James!"
"Oops," James muttered in a very unconcerned tone.
"Don't be an asshat; at least let me go so I can fix it!" Nova complained about the cool metal that was still touching her scalp. It was rigid and firm, but not uncomfortable. The plates moved to adjust, allowing him to be far gentler than she'd seen from him yet.
"Say goodbye," James demanded.
"Goodbye, best friend in the whole entire fucking universe and all the other universes! You're my best friend here, you're my best friend on Asgard, you're my best friend on Vannaheim, you're my best friend on the Frostgiant world-"
"She gets it," James interrupted, tapping his index finger against the top of her head.
"Fine. Bye my love, my beauty, my joy in life. And, I guess, bye, Captain Underpants," Nova trailed off, smirking under the mess of her hair. It was so much fun to fuck with both Steve and his best friend. James had to be by far more fun than Steve, though. Steve tended to act like an adult every two seconds instead of taking in the atmosphere and letting a little bit go. James at least had a small sense of humor and would let Nova tease him until he got too annoyed to handle it.
"Buck, don't hurt-"
The sounds shut off before Steve could finish the sentence, but Nova figured she knew what he was going to say. Don't hurt the poor fragile human that walked into your room. Sometimes, she felt like some strange animal around all the superheroes and enhanced individuals. Like a little tiny, fragile, new born puppy. Okay, to be honest, she'd never had the feeling around James, but that was probably because she was always goading him into noticing her.
"You know, you can let me go now," Nova informed him, head still tipped down at an uncomfortable angle. Nervousness set her on edge as she tapped her feet in quick succession, fingers tied tightly together in a knotted fist. She couldn't see anything around her hair, just the play of light and shadows across the chaotic locks. James shifted behind her, gently positioning the chair she was in differently and Nova froze. Her eyes flashed shut and she swallowed hard, forcing herself to be ready for whatever was to come. Because she had a bad feeling that it wasn't going to be good.
"I would… let you go. But there's a problem," James spoke in a low, slightly wavering voice that Nova had never heard from him before. Oh, god, had he decided to kill her? It would be easy in his apartment, there were probably loads of blood stains and he could just, like, stuff her in the fridge and be done with it. No one came to this floor and no one would know she was gone for over two weeks, when she didn't show up for Christmas. Even then, it could be explained away.
"Problem?" Nova asked, wincing when her voice rose an octave.
"You know the plates in my arms…" James started, going slow so that Nova could answer.
"Yeah."
"There are smaller plates on my palm and fingers… Sometimes, if I'm not careful, things get stuck in the plates," James explained. What could he possibly get stuck in the plates in his hand? A napkin? A peanut? Maybe a tooth pick? That was almost hilarious to think of HYDRA's greatest weapon trying to pry a tooth pick out of his palm. Nova struggled to figure out how this related to her, considering she definitely did not have a tooth pick and he didn't even like it when she was near his metal arm.
That was when a light tap came on the top of her head. The light bulb switched on in her mind and she jumped, bolting to her feet.
"You got your goddamned metal prosthetic stuck in my hair!" Nova shrieked, ducking when she almost ripped her own hair out to get away from James. He lunged to keep up, catching her arm with his human hand and holding her in place with his large blue eyes focused on the mess with a frown. "My hair is attached! To my head! How did this even happen?! How are we going to fix it?! Does it come out? Do you know how to get it out? Has this happened before? I'm not shaving my head. My mama would murder me in my sleep if I did."
"Calm," James soothed, dragging her closer to him so she couldn't keep pulling away. It felt like some individual hairs had gone deeper than others and Nova winced, tears stinging the corners of her eyes as she started to really feel the pain. James led her over to the couch that made up his living room. The decorations were simply weapons systematically placed along the walls. Nova had been shocked by it when she'd come in since she hadn't really looked the last time she'd been in there. Now, it kind of made sense. He was a meticulous sniper and his weapons needed to have some order.
"I don't know what others have told you, but I do not do calm well unless I'm in the middle of a fucking mission. And, even then, Evie does eighty eight percent of the work. How am I supposed to be calm about this? Your hand is stuck and my head is starting to hurt and I just really don't want to have to cut it off," Nova complained, trailing off to sniffle a little. James shifted his hand and a sharp bolt of pain ran through her, causing her to bolt upright and slam back into James's chest. He was perched on the arm of the couch, Nova sitting down right in front of him.
"Deep breaths. It'll be over soon," James murmured as he shifted closer and started carefully working on her hair. His heat radiated through both their shirts, warming Nova to the core. His large body hovered over hers, curled around in an almost protective gesture while he attempted to detangle himself. He was kind about it, gentle as he took certain pieces of hair and tried to untwist them.
"I can't believe this had to happen while we were chatting with Steve and Evie. I'd have personally preferred to just go straight to my mama and show her how big of a disappointment my hair is than to have your best friend see that," Nova complained. Not because she was particularly upset about it, but because she knew that this was not the end of this conversation. Two floors up in her tiny apartment, her Stark Phone was probably going off like crazy as Evie and Steve tried to contact her since James had cut them off, Nova could feel it happening. "Maybe I should just chop off all my hair. I bet I would look cute with short hair. I wouldn't have to worry about it getting stuck in shit like this anymore."
"Steve will be fine," James shrugged off the entire conversation, his fingertips feather light on Nova's scalp as he figured out how to twist and manipulate her wavy locks to do as he wanted. Nova tried to sit still while still getting the point across that he was full of shit.
"Steve is probably calling me a million times this minute freaking out that I hit you and you're going to murder me and it's going to be all my fault! How dare I make friends with his bestest friend? How dare I try to be nice to someone I vaguely know! It's the end of the world," Nova cried dramatically, throwing herself back into the couch. Sadly, she forgot where she was and ended up throwing herself into James. "And then I'll have to explain that you didn't kill me, obviously, and that you just got your hand stuck in my hair, which will be a treat because I'm sure that Steve will claim I'm lying about that tidbit."
"You wouldn't be," James reminded her, his distraction obvious as he pulled a little bit on her hair. Nova flinched but held incredibly still, wanting this over as soon as possible.
The problem wasn't being close to James. Well, it was and it wasn't. She didn't mind being close to him. He was warm and strong and definitely good looking. But he kind of freaked her out. Mostly because she knew he wasn't attracted to her in the least and that was kind of sad if she dwelled on it. He was just so… ugh.
"Yeah, but it's not like I'm going to have any evidence to back up my claim. And you're not the most personable dude out there. Steve will probably think I somehow figured out how to turn you off and decided to push the button for shits and giggles," Nova sighed deeply, biting into her bottom lip and hoping like hell that Steve would believe what happened. She didn't really blame James for hanging up on Steve, she'd done it enough times that it was practically part of their phone conversations, but it was going to be a bitch to calm him down.
"He'll believe you," James informed her seriously, his answer one hundred percent certain. Nova wanted to glance at him and twitched, almost turning her head before James's human hand grabbed her chin from behind to stop her. "Stay still."
"I'm trying!"