"You got a sweet forehead scar," Sam informed her, running his thumb along the neatly sewn line just above and between her eyebrows. "Gotta go defeat Lord Voldemort, now."
"Hilarious," she sighed, but she was grinning. "How's Anna?"
"Pretty messed up," he admitted, as she flopped back down next to him on her apartment couch. The couch was a big step up for her, actually, it having replaced her sole armchair. She felt a lot more like an adult, being able to stretch her legs out, and now there was space for friends and datefriends and, most importantly, Rachel Carson. "But she'll learn to deal with it. She's tough."
"Shouldn't you be telling me any of this? Patient confidentiality, and all that?"
"You're a special case," he said, grabbing Rachel Carson and dropping her back on the floor as she tried to claim his lap for the fourth time that hour. "How many near-death situations have you been in now?"
"I don't want to think about it," she wailed. "I'm cursed, Wilson, that's the only explanation. I'm freaking cursed." He laughed at her, and she broke character to smile for a moment. "But really, Sam- this is what my life's gonna be like, isn't it? I might just be a civilian, but being so close to you lot, it's… dangerous. And I'm kinda scared, sometimes, that the next time something like this happens I won't be so lucky."
Sam nodded. "I know, baby. I'm sorry it has to be like this."
"It's not your fault," she said, "it's just- things aren't even that bad right now, right? The next time something like, like Ultron or Loki or whatever happens again, I'm not sure if I'll be able to hack it. I might just have to-" she gulped, "cut myself loose. Just a little."
"I can see where this is going," Sam said, grabbing her knees and pulling her round to face him.
"Please don't hate me."
"Of course I don't, coffee girl! I was about to say the same thing." He pushed a strand of hair behind her ear- she had dyed it yesterday, and it was now an inky black. "I don't know if you noticed, but I actually kind of like you a lot. But I like you best when you're safe, and if safe means you not dating the most badass Avenger there is, then we're both tough. We'll ride it out."
"Ignoring the badass bit," she said, "I agree completely. But not yet, though. Nothing bad's happening yet, I still get to keep you for a while longer- and we're always friends, right? No matter what?"
"Try and get rid of me." He kissed her forehead. "I really do like you, ya know."
"I should hope so, Avenger Wilson. I should very much hope so."
A/N teeny-tiny chapter but an important author's note about where this fic is going. Firstly, I'll let you know when Civil War spoilers start at the beginning of the chapter, so don't worry about that. Secondly, due to a variety of things including the ambiguous nature of Civil War's ending, the fact that I'm going to university in the autumn, and just the general tone and plot of this fic, once the CW arc's wrapped up there will no longer be weekly updates. Instead, you'll probably get two- or three-chapter arcs whenever I come up with them, and of course a chapter for every new film/character etc (I reckon I'm going to wait until Spidey & Panther films actually come out, but you never know). I love this fic a lot and I'm glad so many of you do too, but this update schedule is insane and I don't ever want to be putting out bad chapters just to keep up with it. Finding Bucky will most likely wrap up Acts II & III before Infinity Wars comes out, and if you want regular updates then Of Mice and Mischief Makers is at least fortnightly and The Civilian Files is at the beginning of every month. And, of course, OCs from respective fics will crop up in others now and then.
So to recap - at least weekly updates until after the Civil War stuff (which is about another two months' worth) and then much more sporadic, while the rest of the Civilian Chronicles will have a more regular update schedule. And if you want to keep up with Eva, you can follow her tumblr (arbxrea) or twitter (evakresk). Or, indeed, follow me on twitter at thenarr4tor if you enjoy a) swearing, b) bitterness and c) bad jokes. And I love you. You'd better love me too. No takebacks.