Bucky's POV:
I could feel their stares as we all sat in silence, listening to the crap music that was playing in the background.
"Say whatever you're dying to say. I can feel your eagerness from here…" I finally mumbled, rolling my eyes at them.
They're worse than my mother was with her nosy friends.
"So, how long ago did you two tie the knot? And why the hell weren't we invited to the big shindig?" Charles asked, with his arms crossed over his chest, trying to intimidate me.
I bit my lip to keep the smirk off my face before looking over at him to answer.
"Two years and ten months. We got married on New Year's Day in Wakanda by their grand priest." I replied, looking away.
"Why was nobody invited to the wedding?" Sam asked.
I shrugged, thinking back to a few days before we decided to get married. Thinking of her face, as she found out her parents had passed. The utter devastation on her face broke my heart.
"Arie didn't want everyone that came to judge us for our past actions. She was so broken-hearted when she found out her parents had died a year after she disappeared, and she didn't want to wait after finding that out. She wanted that day to be the best one of our lives. And it was. Shuri helped plan the wedding and T'Challa walked her down the aisle. It was one of the happiest days of our lives." I said, smiling slightly before it dropped.
It was easier to smile than actually tell them how much we truly struggled after we arrived back Stateside. We have our own secret apartment miles away from the Avengers compound.
We don't own a bed, we sleep on a futon because she knows how uncomfortable a bed makes me.
Though I never told her, she simply knew and opted to get that instead of buying a bed for our room.
"Clint and I looked for her for so long… we feared she was dead when we came up empty handed. No one knew what had happened. She just disappeared one day, on her way home from school." Charles said, looking at my doll sadly.
I nodded wordlessly, staring down at her.
"What happened after you two managed to break out of the Hydra base?" Zemo asked, quietly.
I turned to look at him, ready to smack him, until I saw the concerned look on his face.
"At first we ran as far as we could. Then we decided that we had to change the way we looked to make us less conspicuous. I cropped my hair off, and she bleached hers to look orange. Then she put on contacts to make her eyes look black. That's how we managed to get to Belarus. We spent a few weeks there collecting money by doing small jobs, and finally booked a flight to a small town in Africa, where we met T'Challa. He took us both back to Wakanda, and we remained there for two years." I explained as I felt her tense, and whimpered my name, into my chest as she curled into her body, looking smaller in my arms.
Fuck she's having a nightmare…
"Arie, baby… it's ok .. we're alright, doll. We're fine." I whispered as I pulled her onto my lap and cradled her tiny form.
"How did you two end up together. I mean, not to be mean but you two are complete opposites?" Charles asked, eyeing his sister, worried.
Zemo laughed, shaking his head at him. "Come on, Charles, haven't you ever heard of the term 'opposites attract'?" He asked him amused.
"I believe I have somewhere." Charles quipped with an eye roll.
"You two are idiots." Sam muttered with a scoff.
"I resent that!" Zemo replied, frowning.
"Not more than me being here with you…" Sam commented.
"To answer your question, Charles. I fell for your sister the moment I met her. When we finally broke out of that place. We quickly learned to trust each other, and got to know each other rather quickly. We were friends first. That was probably what made us closer after we arrived in Wakanda. The Dora Milaje helped free us of the programming Hydra had put us through, and train us to become better, skilled fighters. Though it didn't help with the memories. So, we counted on each other." I explained.
"So, you decided to get together and marry before you came back stateside? How does that work?" Sam asked, confused.
I turned to look at him before looking down at my doll in my arms.
"No. We knew we had feelings for each other that were beyond our friendship. Though we never acted on them until I had an accident, while training with Ayo. When your sister found out she was beside herself, she stayed with me until I woke up. I got lucky to get away with a bad concussion and a few scrapes. When I woke up and saw her standing over me I thought she was an angel." I said, smiling at the memory.
"And then you said, 'Don't cry. Angeles shouldn't be sad.'" I heard a soft voice say, before I felt a small hand touch my cheek.
I smiled down at her, before bringing up her hand to my lips and lightly her the palm of her hand.
"So, you two got together because of an accident?" Zemo asked, unimpressed.
My fist clenched at my side as I glared at him.
His very presence bothered me. Every time I looked at him, my mind went back to the days in Hydra.
"Yes, we did. And if you don't want to have an accident of your own, Zemo, then refrain from asking stupid questions." She snapped as she sat up.
I bit back a groan, as she accidentally rubbed herself on me.
"Sorry." She whispered, before wrapping her arms around my neck.
"It's alright, love." I whispered, kissing her neck.
"Well, I can see why you two married, not that I am happy that I missed it. But I can see why you did it the way you did." Charles commented.
Arie stiffened and turned to look at me and her brother.
"Do I want to know what you told him?" She asked me.
"He's your older brother. If we can have him on our side when we tell everyone else. It'll help greatly, trust me, doll." I replied, as I kissed her cheek.
"Clint is going to be hurt that we didn't tell him." She replied, leaning into me with her lower lip jutting out slightly as she swung her legs in the air slowly.
"That asshole is just getting a taste of his own medicine. Remember when he got engaged to Laura? He fucking married her two days later. If he starts trouble with you two, leave him to me." Charles said, shaking his head.
"Charlie, you know he got married to Laura because she was pregnant. They love each other. Besides you're one to talk. Remember Renee?" My doll asked, smirking as her brother stiffened. "What about Susana?" She asked, smiling widely at him.
He flinched, before shaking his head, "Alright. I got the message. Quit airing out my dirty laundry, you little shit." He said, as Zemo offered him a beer.
"Would you care to drink one too?" Zemo offered us as he took a champagne flute from the elderly man who kept asking us if we wanted food.
"Oh no, thank you." My doll said, shaking her head before taking a water bottle for herself.
I grabbed a water too, smiling at her as she bit her lip.
"I love you, Mrs. Barnes." I whispered, with a smile.
"I love you, Mr. Barnes." She whispered back, leaning down to kiss me, before she snuggled into me again and fell asleep.
Arie's POV:
Dream:
An eerie voice slowly sang No Strings On Me.
Our friends stood tensely in the sitting room of the compound in the middle of destroyed robots.
A half working robot walking slowly towards them as they all stood tensely. While the robots fizzied out.
"You'll understand someday soon."
"What do you want?" Tony asked.
"The same thing as you. Peace. And you can't have peace if there is people creating war. Something has to give." The voice said.
"By killing people. You're only creating chaos." Nat said.
"We won't allow you to succeed." Steve said, standing slightly in front of Nat.
"I'm sorry, I know you mean well. You just didn't think it through. You want to protect the world but you don't want it to change. How is humanity saved if it's not allowed to... evolve? With these? These puppets. There's only one path to peace. The Avengers' extinction." The voice drawled.
-~Fades into another ~-
Tony, Steve and my brother stood in the meeting room with everyone, including Wanda and her brother Pietro, tensely.
"He took Nat. We have to get her back." Steve stressed.
"Easy there, Cap. We know this is a stressful situation. We will get her back. Don't worry." Tony calmly said.
"Tony if anything happens to Natasha, and my sister finds out, you're dead, so you better think of something before Arie catches wind of this situation and comes here." My brother said standing too close to Tony's face.
"Clint this wasn't my fault, this was supposed to be a kidnapping!" Tony snapped back.
"Both of you need to calm down. Do we know where she is yet?" Steve asked, looking over at Bruce.
He looked up for a moment, "No. I do have a possible location. Sokovia. Novi Grad, more specifically. It seemed that some sketchy activity has been occuring there for the past few weeks." Bruce replied.
"We need to—" Steve's voice began.
The scene and their voice began to fade.
Everything was replaced by a sharp pain in my head, and in my chest, which caused me to scream.
"Ahhh!!!" As my back arched painfully.
"Arie?!"
I felt as if my heart was about to burst, and the blinding searing pain multiplied.
A moment later, a loud ringing appeared in my ears before I felt as if something warm touched my head.
'What's wrong with her?!'
'Arie? Ariana please, don't leave me. I love you, doll. I don't know what I would do without you, my love.'
'Oh my god she's bleeding.'
'Hang in there, squirt. Help is on the way.'
The ringing continued for a moment longer, before suddenly it all stopped. The pains were gone, as well as the ringing.
As soon as everything stopped, my eyes snapped open and I flew into a sitting position.
"Arie? Doll? Doll? Love, speak to us. Tell us what's wrong."
I turned to look around, before my eyes settled on Bucky.
Before I could even think about it, I threw myself at him, letting out a sob as I felt his arms wrap around me.
"What's wrong, doll?" He asked me as I buried my face into his chest, allowing his scent to enclose me, soothing me instantly.
I shook my head in response, feeling him tighten his hold on me slightly.
"She scared the shit out of us. The least she can do is tell us what's wrong." I heard Zemo say.
"I saw the attack Nat told me about… I—I— I…" I sputtered.
"You what?" Zemo asked impatiently.
"Last warning, Zemo." I heard Bucky growl at him.
"It's Nat. We have to go help her…" I said, swallowing thickly.
"We can't help her, doll. If we interfere, we might as well be painting a target on their backs…" Bucky said.
"She's in trouble, James. We have to…" I tried to argue feebly.
"I'm sorry, doll. But I can't risk something happening to you." Bucky said, tightening his hold again.
"Bucky's right, Arie. You two have pissed off a lot of important people, and if we help our friends back home, they'll be in trouble too." Sam said.
The tension, and silence that filled the cabin was suddenly interrupted by the noise.
"It appears your friends have stuck their foot in it again." Zemo commented, as we all watched a video replay of Bruce in full Hulk form fighting with Tony.
"Oh my god." I gasped, turning to look at Bucky as he and Sam shared a surprised look.
Author's Note:
Alright don't kill me yet.
An explanation of how Wanda and Pietro got there before Ultron will be given later...
