Author's Note: Oh my goodness, it has been forever since I have posted! Okay, only two weeks, but still! Give yourself some credit for not going crazy in these two weeks!
Avengers: *applause*
I hope you guys like this chapter. Chapters will start to get shorter, but not by too much. Enjoy and have a happy Monday if at all possible!
Chapter 36: Phobias
The next morning, you slept in late. You felt extremely drained from the events of yesterday. You went to bed early, slept all through the night, and well into the next morning. By the time you do wake up, half of the day is already gone.
You would have slept longer if it weren't for the trembling.
You slowly woke up to your room shaking slightly. Even through the fog of sleep, you registered that room plus shaking equals something bad.
Lethargically, you drag yourself over to the bed edge before flopping your legs over the edge and standing.
You throw on some jeans and a sweat-shirt before trudging out of your room, rubbing the tiredness from your eyes.
You feel that you should be more worried, but there is something you need to remember that would make the situation a lot less worrying. Plus, it is hard to be worried when you are groggy.
Trying to go faster, you trip down the stairs two at a time.
"Steve?" you asks, pushing your fingers through your knotted hair in an attempt to tame the tangled mess.
Tony takes one look at you and nearly spits out his coffee. You then realize that you are half asleep, wearing extremely baggy jeans, with such a bad hair day that it would give Merida a run for her money, and a sweat-shirt that is three times too large…and backwards.
Rolling your eyes, you ask Steve, "We aren't on a fault line, are we?" you ask.
Steve gives a nervous side glance at Natasha before saying, "No, I don't think we are."
"Okay, good," you say, sleepily sinking onto the steps, resting your elbow on your knees, and propping your head on your hand.
"Why?" Steve asks before you can nod off.
"Because my room was shaking, that's all," you say.
"Oh," Natasha says. "Bucky must be back. That wing always shakes whenever a Quin jet lands."
You perk up, feeling slightly more awake at the mention of the name. You feel extremely excited to see Bucky and Fenris. You wonder since you now have seen your memories, if you will feel a surge of recognition when you see them that will help strengthen your relationship with your friends. After all, the last time you met someone who wasn't an original Avenger, your powers sort of blew up the entire platform. You wonder what will happen when you see Fenris and Bucky.
You, quickly followed by Steve and Natasha, made your way out to the landing pad. As you three wait, you can't help but fidget. You tug on your hair nervously as the ship goes through the landing process. Heat waves blow your hair back as the engine fire bursts against the ground. Your hair is flipped out of your face from the heat, but, after a while, the warm wind calms. Soon, the exit ramp lowers, and a mound of shadows bulls out of the ship, giving a growl of excitement as it body-slams you into the ground.
"Whoa! Fenris!" you shout as you are suddenly lifted off the ground before being slammed into the ground, just hard enough to jostle you.
A black tongue leaves greenish slobber all over your face, and you grunt in disgust. "Grose! Fen-Fenris, get off!" you groan, pushing both of your hands against Fenris's snout. Natasha and Steve try to pull Fenris back, but it is obvious that they have no control over the dog whatsoever.
Fenris licks your hand before leaning back and tilting his head as though confused. His ears perk as his green eyes look at you. He steps off of you, sniffing you up and down intently.
"It's all right, buddy," you say, awkwardly giving him a pat on the head. "It's okay. I'm still me, I'll just explain later."
You have no idea how, but Fenris knows you have changed.
"Glad to see that everyone missed me," Bucky says, exiting the jet. He is cradling a soccer ball in one of his hands and a bag in the other.
You quickly try to wipe some of the drool and dog hair off of your face as you see Bucky walking towards you.
Steve is the first to greet him, and they both share a brotherly smile. Next, he gives Natasha a sort of awkward hug.
"No offense, but I am not hugging you," he says, smirking down at you.
"Yeah, Fenris can get excited," you say as you try to brush Fenris fur off of your hands.
"Tell me about it," Bucky says. "He hasn't seen a yard in weeks." He pitches the soccer ball off into the field, and Fenris bounds after it, giving you one last glance.
"Huh. That's strange," Bucky whispers softly.
"Um, what is?" you ask innocently.
"Fenris usually goes right after the ball, now he seems to be taking his time. Don't you know that?" he asks sarcastically.
"Well, um, it's been a while…" you say truthfully but still nervously. Why are you such a fumbling mess!?
"Should we get inside?" Natasha asks before a lull can appear.
"Yeah, this bag is killing my shoulder," he says, shifting it around. "Oh, and Sam isn't here is he?"
"No," Steve says.
Bucky rolls his eyes up to the sky. "Thank goodness. If he was, I would probably just die right here and now," he says, walking past.
"Wow," you say dully. "Long mission?"
Bucky gives you an odd look. "Three months," he says. "You were there when I left."
"Oh, uh, haha, clumsy me, I forgot," you stutter, feeling like an extremely bad actor.
Steve finally has enough mercy to intervene. "Hey, Buck, I'll talk to you later," he says, shaking his head slightly.
Bucky looks you up and down before disappearing inside.
"Ugh," you sigh, rolling your head back. "I think I might die here and now," you groan. "I never even thought about just how many Avengers there are and how I am going to have to do this with each and every one of them!"
Steve shrugs. "Maybe not. I'm pretty sure that Vision wouldn't be too much of a problem," he says, grinning cheekily.
You give him a glare. "That is because you and I both know that I can't get within fifteen feet of Vision without a headache," you grumble.
Steve shrugs. "Still."
Peter dropped by later that day. He not only finished school early for the weekend, but he also had some tech to work on with Tony. It actually felt really nice to talk to someone who knew that you lost your memories but just didn't really care. It wasn't that he was mean, he just didn't see it as a problem to damper your friendship with him.
"Hey, you know what, I never really knew you outside of our suits anyway, so this is just us being friends," he told you.
Peter was the one Avenger that you made friends with after you got here.
Steve explained everything that happened with your memories to Bucky, who seemed slightly disturbed by the fact that you created a temporary alternate reality. But, he really didn't judge or act weird around you. He simply stated that he knew what it was like to find a new life after something happened to disrupt your old one. He also told you that that is why you and Steve became such good friends, which, admittedly, made you blush.
As it happened, the Avengers were spread throughout the building. However, none were too far away since they were all on the same floor.
You were sitting on the couch next to the fireplace, reading a book. No one else was in the room right then, but you could hear someone else rummaging around in the room next to yours.
Your eyes were starting to tire from reading so long, so you finally closed your book and lay your head back on the sofa, staring at the ceiling for a while. Then, you look over to see your hair flopped over the arm as well.
Your eyes widen, and you slowly twist over and get onto your feet, your head tilted to the side so that your hair didn't actually touch you.
"Peter!" you call.
Within a few seconds, you hear a couple of crashes before Peter came stumbling and red-faced into the room. "Sorry," he pants, "Did you call?"
"You're good with spiders, right?" you ask nonchalantly.
Peter frowns. "Yeah," he says.
Your breathing begins to quicken. "THEN GET THIS THING OUT OF MY HAIR BEFORE I PERMANENTLY FREEZE IT IN A LAYER OF ICE SO THICK THAT IT WON'T MELT IN A MILLION YEARS!" you shout at the top of your lungs, sending Peter jumping back.
"Oh! Uh, okay," he says, awkwardly, walking over to your hair and bending down. "Do you know where it is?"
"In my hair obviously!" you shout quieter this time.
Peter jumps slightly, but his face brightens. "Oh, found it!" he says, and you feel his fingers comb through your hair.
You feel every follicle of hair on your arms rise as you shake your hands and bite your lip. "Is it out?" you whimper.
"Yup!" Peter says, proudly. He holds up his hands, palms facing up. You see a small house-spider sitting in the middle of his hand.
"Yuck! Get that thing out of here before I start shooting flames at it!" you shout, crawling back onto the sofa.
"Okay," Peter says, pulling his hands back towards himself.
Then, Bucky comes into the room, giving a slightly concerned look. "Y/N, are you okay?" he asks. "I heard you shout."
"Theres…theres a….ugh! A thing!" you say shrilly, gesturing frantically to the spider which is touching Peter's skin!
Bucky raises one eyebrow, looks at Peter's hand, and then is suddenly up on the couch with you. He is hurriedly trying to push you to the front, and you elbow him to get to the back.
Peter gives a slight snicker and takes a tentative step closer to you two.
Both of you suck in your breaths at once, sounding like a hissing cat. "Parker, I am warning you right now to get that thing away from me," Bucky growls, trying and failing to sound intimidating.
"Peter Parker, if that comes within an inch of me!" you warn, holding out a hand and readying your ice.
At that point, Tony walks into the room, a mug of coffee in one hand and a tablet screen in the other.
"Hi, Mr. Stark!" Peter greets happily.
"Hey, kid," Tony says absently.
"Look, Mr. Stark, a spider!" Peter says, holding out his hands with the spider towards Tony.
"Cool, kid," Tony responds, continuing on into the other room.
You and Bucky gape at the doorway where Tony disappeared.
Peter then happily walks away with his spider, cooing something to the tiny, insulting creature.
"Some people have it so lucky," Bucky growls lowly, sitting on the back of the couch.
"Yeah," you grunt, pulling your knees into your chest.
You both sit there for a moment before glancing at each other.
"Are you gonna get down yet?" you ask Bucky from your perch.
"Nope," Bucky says simply.
"Okay," you reply.