A/N: This title is brought to you by the youtube video "Luigi is the Jackie Chan of games and you should just accept it" by Polygon. If you haven't seen it and at least have heard of Luigi and Jackie chan before, then I would highly recommend watching it when you need a good laugh.

Thank you so much Emerald2211 and BlueOwl for betaing and for giving me some suggestions to help with the story.

He really didn't want Lani to leave his sight, but he needed to get answers. There was a good reason why he (Bucky?) never went after any of the Hydra bases despite wanting nothing more than to eliminate them all. He promised Lani he wouldn't leave, and he didn't want to take Lani with him. A part of him knew that she could handle herself, but it wasn't a question of ability. He just didn't want her to, didn't want to see her in pain or sad or scared, and that would happen if they went to any active base. Not to mention that there was a chance that he could forget again.

He didn't trust this group fully. The red haired woman he met on a mission, his last mission from Hydra, and he shot her in order to kill the target. If things go south, she would have to be the first to go. Though she was less openly hostile after Lani handed over the list of names she collected over the years.

Who he couldn't stop staring at was Captain America, Steve Rogers.

"Stark is a bit... egotistical, but I think Lani will be fine with him," said man reassured him as they walked to an empty conference room.

"He is a lot like Howard, not exactly the same, but sometimes I look and think he's his father. Do you remember Howard or..."

"No," he said without thinking.

The name Howard didn't ring any bells, but he understood what Steve was talking about with expecting someone else when looking at Tony. Maybe he was expecting to see this Howard person, maybe it was something else.

"As cute as watching you two play twenty questions is, we should get down to business. Barton took a look into the list while Banner was wrapping up Lani and he thinks there is something fishy going on," Black Widow said, putting one of those computers that can close up on the table.

At least Steve looked as uncomfortable as him with the device.

"Problem is, the one Lani called '100% evil mofo' is Alexander Pierce who was the director of Shield until 2003."

"An evil... 'mofo'?" Steve asked, and at least he could answer that question.

"It's slang for motherfucker."

"For what?" Steve practically squeaked, his voice going very high pitch. "Isn't she a little young to know...that?"

"Probably. What does Alexander Pierce do now?" he asked, targeting the last bit at the Black Widow.

She looked grateful that they were back on track, though he thought he saw a faint smile before he gave her his full attention. Or at least close to his full attention.

"World Security Council Secretary; not someone you can just claim to be a traitor. Not without some infallible evidence. Do you know anything about Pierce? Ever worked with him?" Black Widow asked, looking right at him.

"I don't know," he said at first, before wondering if he should explain more.

He (Bucky?) wanted to tell Steven for some reason. A reason that could probably be explained by his half-forgotten dreams, but Lani had his journal currently and now was not the time. Telling them more about the reason he doesn't know if he ever met Pierce is information that could be used against him and endanger Lani. The fact that Lani even told the group about Hydra means she doesn't think any of them are connected, but that doesn't mean they are safe.

"You don't know or don't want to tell us?"

He meet the Black Widow's glare head on. He didn't trust her. He couldn't trust her. Not when he knows that Black Widows have always been willing to work with Hydra. She might have changed her loyalties, or she could be a traitor. It was not something he was willing to bet Lani's wellbeing on.

"Bucky, please, if you know anything it could help."

Looking at Steve was hard. It felt like when he woke up from a dream, with thoughts and memories just on the tip of his tongue. With Steve pleading at him with those stupid eyes that he knows will make him cave, it was impossible to not answer.

"My mind was wiped after finishing each mission. If we ever met, it was over three years ago."

"After each mission?" Steve repeated in horror.

"Makes sense. Even if you were involved with half the assainations that the Winter Soldier was rumored to be the cause of, that would be more than enough to get rid of Hydra."

He forgot the Black Widow was there. That shouldn't have happened.

"But you know where the bases are?" she continued, only looking like she was deep in thought.

At least they were getting back to the mission brief.

"The active ones, and a few that are used as safehouses," he said before they really got into the thick of planning.

There was something very familiar about going over ways of infiltrating Hydra bases. Steve brainstorming path of entries that he would either agree with or add additional information to. It was easier than worrying about what trouble Lani will find or talking about all the holes in his memories.

"Natasha, what are you going to do about Shield?" Steve asked once they were moving to attural plans rather than just ideas.

"Clint's looking into it, but we will have to play along for now. There is just enough questionable stuff happening that the idea of Hydra being involved is believable. I don't think Fury knows but..."

"You can't rule it out either."

"No, I can't."

A silence fell after Black Widow muttered that, admitted to how big this really was. And that there was a good chance the only people who could stop Hydra were the ones who now knew. He wasn't sure if it would change much, but he was getting tired of only running. It was never his (Bucky's?) style... at least he hoped it wasn't.

"We should let everyone else know. Sounds like we aren't done being the Avengers just yet," Steve said, giving him a smile that made it feel like everything would work out.

"...You have way too many windows."

That's not what I wanted to say when seeing Tony's more personal living quarters, but it was true. Even with one of the glass walls boarded up (probably where Tony got thrown out if that still happened like in the movie) it was just insane. I like sunlight, but it's not like the view of the city was that impressive. It was cool at night, but you could hardly see the big dipper so it wasn't that cool.

"I have way less now kiddo," Tony grumbled before putting on a face for the others. "Did you miss me?"

"No," Natahsa said in such a deadpan voice that I couldn't help but snort a little.

"Rude. Did you at least get the cyborg assassin to tell you anything fun?"

"Stark, gathering information about a secret organization is never fun."

"The fun part is when you get to punch a Nazi," Steve piped in, and I guess that answers the question if Captain America would punch a modern day Nazi or not.

I walked over to Bucky while Natasha caught Tony up on whatever they talked about. I figured Bucky would tell me anything important later.

"Did you have fun?"

"Uh yeah, apparently Tony's new element is a conglomeration between matter and freaking antimatter! Like, that is so weird! I can't even believe it's stable, but it is, and it's in his chest and... it's so cool!"

Suddenly, I noticed that everyone was staring at me. I might have said that last bit a little too loud, but that's what happens when I get excited. The novelty of Tony's badassium hasn't worn off and I don't know if it ever will. The whole thing should be impossible, but I guess that's just what happens when you live in a comic book universe.

Makes me wonder if the laws of physics are different. From what I've researched it's the same, but that could just be that is just what is known.

"Do you even know what antimatter is?" Clint asked from where he was sitting on the sofa, seemingly the only one who was taking advantage of Tony's flatscreen tv.

"Yes, do you?"

"No, not really."

"Oh," I started to say before I was interrupted.

"Sir, Miss Potts wants to know if she can come in."

"Let her in, you guys don't mind if Pepper is here right?"

"Stark-" Natasha started to say, but whatever she was going to tell him wasn't something she wanted to say in front of his secretary.

Or was it CEO now?

Pepper walked in with her heels clicking on the floor like a woman on a mission. That mission being handed to Tony in the form of a tablet.

"The builder contracts from before are there along with the bill New York is trying to have us pay. Now, I get you don't want to do this now but... Is that a child?"

Pepper looked very confused as she stared directly at me. Yeah, her life must be crazy when having aliens and gods hanging around is less weird than a kid.

"That's what I said when I saw her on top of one of those alien bastards. This is Lani, Lani meet Pepper Potts," Tony said, obviously enjoying this a little too much.

I gave a wave and a smile nevertheless.

"Nice to meet you, Miss Potts."

Pepper looked at me, then Tony, then back at me.

"Sorry, did you say she was on top of one of those things?"

"Blew one up too. Nearly gave me a heart attack."

"...How?"

"It wasn't that hard. They all had cybernetic implants so all I needed to do was mess with the wires then Bam! Explosion time."

If possible, Pepper looked more confused by my explanation. Sure, I was leaving my whole alchemy abilities out, but that is what I did to make them explode.

"Oh, and her dad is Captain's old friend, James Barnes, who had been a brainwashed assassin for Hydra until recently."

"That is more in-line with what I was expecting," Pepper said with a sigh. "Are they going to be staying here?"

"They are invited to, along with everyone else here." Tony gave Bucky and me a look at that, before pulling Pepper away from the group.

"What do you think?" I whispered to Bucky.

Between the super soldier and super spies and Thor I didn't think getting a private conversation was going to happen with everyone there. Not that I felt like I needed to lie about being worried about staying. Bucky wasn't locked up or anything so I didn't think they would keep us from leaving.

"We could leave now, but you need to sleep so now might be the best time to do it," Bucky said not in a whisper, but just a low voice.

"I could sleep on the bike."

"No."

I rolled my eyes at that.

"Fiiine, I guess we are staying the night. Thank you, Mr. Stark," I said loudly enough to interrupt Tony and Pepper.

"Anytime, Lani."

Pepper gave Tony a look that would have had me making 'aww how cute' noises if I was watching this in a movie, but it was real life so I just awkwardly smiled. Then she started walking toward me.

"Tony told me that you were the one that saved him from that black hole?" Pepper said once she crouched down to my level.

"Wormhole not black hole. If it was a black hole there would have been spaghettification happening and I'm not strong enough to mess with infinite gravitational force like that," I told her, but Pepper just stayed silent.

It was a little uncomfortable since she obviously was thinking something about me, but I had no idea what.

Now would be a good time for a relationship popup.

"...But yeah, I guess I did save him."

"Thank you, Lani, that was a very brave thing you did."

"Don't tell her that. She already does reckless things without trying to be brave."

"Hey, it's not like I got hurt."

"Your hand is broken."

"That was because of the landing, not the reckless act of teleporting through a wormhole and back thousands of light years."

"So you admit it was reckless?"

"Of course, I made a calculated risk," I told Bucky with a shit-eating grin.

Only to remember that we were currently in the Stark-soon-to-be-Avenger tower and not in a motel in the middle of nowhere. Steve was staring at us. Tony was staring at us. Pepper was still crouched in front of me looking what I hope was amused.

I could feel my cheeks getting warm in embarrassment.

"Reckless and selfless are very close. It's always good to do the right thing, but it does make people who care about you worry. Try not to make this a habit, Lani. You're a little young to be a hero I think," Pepper said with a kind smile before standing up.

"I like to follow the philosophy of doing good recklessly, but I get what you're saying," I told her, even though I got the distinct impression she wasn't just talking about me.

Well, the 'too young to be a hero' was for me, but the rest? I feel like Tony and Pepper have some talking they need to do. Nothing like unspoken worries and fears to ruin a relationship. Wasn't that a thing in the third Iron Man movie?

"Doing good recklessly, I like that," Thor said from his corner of the room.

"Thanks, it was something I saw online," I told him with a huge smile.

I always liked Thor, and it was only partly because lightning is a cool ability and his hammer is made out of neutron star matter (at least that's what I heard. Might have been a comic book only thing). The other reason was that he looked a lot like one of my cousins when he had long hair.

I always joked that he looked like a modern day viking.

Though now is probably not the best time to get to know him, what with the whole 'your brother isn't dead but he is trying to take over the world'. I do need to figure out how to bring up Thanos and The Other, but I think that can wait a little bit. I have enough to worry about with Hydra. I don't want to think about the infinity stones and all that just yet.

One crisis at a time.

"Online being..." Steve said, mimicking typing.

"Yes capsicle, online meaning on the internet, or world wide web."

Steve looked annoyed at Tony, which I kinda got. Dude has only been awake in this century for a week? Maybe? There are still old people who lived through the whole tech revolution and still don't know that 'www' stands for 'world wide web'. Admittedly, I made fun of Bucky a few times for texting like he was sending a letter.

"You said you had movies?" I asked, only slightly weary how everyone's attention was on me again.

Didn't they have better things to do? Like plan how to get rid of Hydra and Shield? Or at least relax a little. Tony had a glass of what looked like whisky, but everyone else seemed to be painfully alert.

"Got bluray, Hulu, netflix, some games-"

"Games?" I asked since Tony never struck me as one to chill and play video games.

I suppose he could be talking about card games or even board games but...

"I've never played any of them, but I made sure to have the most popular ones of each year."

I walked over to the cabinet by the huge TV that Tony opened, and it was filled with consoles. I recognized a PlayStation 3, an Xbox, a Wii and a... I think it was called Atari? I never played one but I know my uncle wanted one for his birthday. Of course, Tony would have all this stuff and never use it. Rich people, man.

"...Wait, do you have Mario Kart?"

That was one of the few games where my whole family could play. Even my grandparents. The other being jackbox TV, but I don't know if the first one is even out yet. Besides, not everyone has a phone that can go online.

"All the games are alphabetized," Tony explained while he opened another cabinet that was filled.

It was a little weird seeing no separation between game systems, but at least the original wii games were white.

Tony helped me set up the wii and TV (it had like five hdmi channels). It was a little weird hearing the channel music since it had been years since I last played a wii. Probably since 2011 ironically enough.

"You've played this before?" Clint asked, still on the couch.

"A few times. Have you?"

"Got this game when it first came out. I'm pretty good, but I'll be sure to go easy on you, Lani."

"Right. I'll like to see how long that will last."

[Relationship up]

[Clint Barton friendship]

[level 1: You remind him of his kids]

Huh. I forgot he had kids before Age of Ultron. I mean, I knew he had kids but I just didn't make the connection that that would mean the oldest two would already be born. I think. I don't remember how old they were in the movies, but in that flashback in Endgame the girl looked like a teenager. If she was 13 in 2018, than she would be 6 now.

That's weird to think about.

"Hey, Buddy, do you want to play?" I asked instead of thinking more about that, already handing him one of the wii remotes.

Bucky took it and just stared at me with a raised eyebrow.

"It's motion sensitive, so you hold it like this and pretend that it's a steering wheel. The 2 is the gas and you can use the arrows to throw things you pick up," I explained while showing off what I was doing.

"Do you want to try, Steve, you can have up to four people at once," I asked when I noticed said man hovering by us as he had been doing this whole time.

I really hope he wasn't just waiting for a chance to talk to Bucky alone and now I ruined it by wanting to play a game. I just wanted to see how bad Bucky would mess up.

"I'll give it a try."

I also had to show the old men how to move the cursor, but it still was easier than when I tried showing my parents before.

"Nice, so first we pick our characters, then you can pick your kart or bike."

"Do you want Princess Peach, Lani?"

I gave him an unamused look while moving my cursor over to select Yoshi.

"Yeah, dinosaurs are pretty cool," Clint said as he selected Peach for himself.

Bucky kept selecting a character before clicking the next one while I tried my best to explain them. Not that it was the best description since I've only played a handful of mario games.

"Luigi is underrated, he's like the Jackie Chan of video games."

"Whoa, what? How is the tall green Italian stereotype like Jackie Chan?"

Pepper was gone, and apparently Tony was back to watching us even though it has been close to twenty minutes and we haven't gotten to the cup selection yet. At least Clint is as patient as me.

"They both try even though it's hard. It's like... an archetype," I tried explaining, though Tony was still looking at me like I was crazy.

Steve ended up selecting Toad, though I wasn't sure if it was because he wanted that character or because he finally got lucky with pressing A while hovering above it.

"Is he a good choice then?" Bucky asked.

"There isn't really any good or bad choices for characters. Honestly, the only difference I know is if you play as Bowser you can smash into people easier. One of my cousins used to do that all the time."

"Bowser is the dragon that has consent issues?"

"Okay, maybe I shouldn't have phrased it like that."

"It might have been better to just randomly pick one," Tony piped in.

"Yeah, but where's the fun in that."

Bucky ended up selecting Luigi and finally we were on the next menu. Clint and me selected one of the bikes right away while Bucky and Steve went through the different options with limited success. Soon enough everyone was ready, and I made sure that Steve and Bucky were on manual drive.

"Hmm, we should probably start off on a normal race track."

It was sad that half of the cups were still locked, though doing rainbow road might have been cruel to start off with. I ended up picking Mario circuit since I wanted to do coconut mall later anyways.

The first race went as well as one could expect.

Steve ended up in reverse half the time, Bucky somehow was able to get hit by the chain 'n ball that acts like a dog every single time. I was a little too busy laughing at that to beat Clint. Not to mention I could only used one hand which meant I didn't use any of the items.

"Holy- you're just in an infinite loop of getting hit. I didn't even think that was possible!"

Steve ended up getting 11th place even with his kart continually getting reseted for going the wrong way.

"Want to do another race?" I asked once I stopped laughing enough to hit the button.

"Sure, that was... something," Bucky said and I nearly snorted.

"Oh, it was something?"

"I have to agree with Buck, it was surely something alright."

When Steve added that I ended up giggling. Still, neither of the old men seemed put out and the next race went better.

Better as in I beat Clint and Bucky was able to get into 8th place.

"You know what? I'll try a hand at this. Can't be too hard," Tony said after the third race when Clint said he was done for now.

I ended up giving my controller to Thor which was very amusing seeing how he got in first place without figuring out how to throw the shells. Natasha even joined in for one race against Tony, Clint, and myself.

It was... really relaxing. Probably the most relaxed I've been since the farm. Maybe even since I died and came to this world/universe/whatever. I totally blamed that as the reason why I started dozing off on Bucky's arm.

A/N: I hoped you guys enjoyed the fluff in this chapter :3c

Thank you everyone who has favorited and/or followed this story. And thank you to KEZZ 1, Silly Thoughts, Sabbie (really, thank you for your review), Goldenfightergirl, Eslynn, Guest who I think might qualify as my first hate review? (though I do get finding a story that wasn't what you were hoping for. I just don't get taking the time to leave a review about it), Cboylan, XenoLucifer, RedDragon395, Guest who signed their review as Morgan, Lulumo, Drunken Hamster, jlnorris75, wickedlfairy17, Bisque-Ware, the guest named SunnySide (she was fighting some of the Chituari on the ground with Bucky and was helping people get off the street. I really like the name Ace too), Nameless Angel 00, the guest named Fan (your review made me smile so much), JustUsingARandomName, Inu-Angel Z, PhoenixxReborn, Amir-015, DullReign82, I.D's Fantasy, Y0urDownfall, AzureTheVampire, FelixtheSax, Death Fury, yummyapplepies (I just realized your username is about apple pies. I was too distracted by the Slytherin picture to notice.), Omega-66, frankiew, Blueowl, and BlueDove WhiteDove, for taking the time to leave me a review. Speaking of last chapter, we broke another record. 33 review for this site and 46 review/comment total for one chapter. I have stories that have that much in total, let alone for one chapter. You guys are truly the best!

Originally I was going to ask you guys if you wanted a normal size chapter, or a longer chapter with a cliffhanger but I think I know what I'm going to do.

Also I think I'll start leaving fanfic recommendations at the end of the chapter. I got inspired by "The Stones don't Forget" by Curious_Teacup over on ao3 (which is a time travel style story with Tony as the mc). However, I know when this story only had a few chapters a lot of you (like two) thought that she was in the Red Room. If you like that idea I recommend you checking out Charmadon't "Unbreakable". There are only four chapters but considering the story only have four reviews you might be able to change that ;)

See you again next weekend!