Bucky and Steve came back triumphant, spreading their wares out.
They had a half loaf of bread, a bag of slightly mushy but still fairly good oranges, three cookies with a burnt edge, a bottle of orange juice with yesterday's date and somehow, somehow they'd gotten a hold of some painkillers.
"Companies are ridiculous," Bruce muttered, leaning forward to examine one of the oranges. "Foods are a little soft or something and they put them out on the nearly free table. And as soon as things go out of date, they're in the trash."
All of them had learned when most stores threw out their stuff, when the cheap table would be full, when security would be away from the cameras. They rarely had to venture inside the stores anymore, and only risked it when they needed something specific, like meds.
They were used to splitting the food, and no one seemed to mind that they were splitting it one more time. They all had an orange, nearly half of a cookie and the bread and OJ sat in the middle to be picked at. They trusted that no one person would take more than their share.
Natasha was handed a couple of the meds before Steve tucked the packet into his pocket.
Both Natasha and Tony had past problems with drugs and even though they were the ones in pain at that time, it wasn't a good idea for either of them to have a hold of the packet.
Taking a swig of the juice, Natasha swallowed the pills, sighing softly. She leaned into Clint's side, more playing with her piece of cookie than eating it. In the end, she pulled a face and handed it over to Thor, who had already torn through his share of the food.
"Are you sure?" He asked softly.
"I had a lot to eat at the hospital, I'm sure. If that's okay." She looked around the group. Usually if someone didn't want their share, they would determine who needed it most. They'd all had food at the hospital and it seemed by the way he was eating, that Thor hadn't for a while. Everyone nodded and Thor eagerly accepted the cookie.
"I'm going to lay down." The redhead proclaimed. "I'll have my orange later." She slowly stood up, wandered over to their bags. It was the middle of the afternoon and still warm, so she didn't feel bad taking the only sleeping bag. She curled up inside after laying it across the dusty floor, just the top of her head peeking out.
There were plenty of rooms she could have gone to, but they'd all shared a room for so long that leaving them even to rest felt weird and scary.
Clint bit his lip as he watched her settle down, sighing and pulling his knees up to his chest.
"She'll be okay." Bucky said softly, reaching over to squeeze his shoulder.
Clint shook his head. "I don't know, man. You should have seen her when he came towards me. She was terrified. We can't..."
"We won't." Tony said firmly. "None of us are ever going back to those hellholes, okay? Well, unless goldilocks is going to."
Thor looked up from his orange peel, shrugging. "I don't care if I go back or not, I just need to find Loki."
"Huh, fair enough." Tony shrugged, wondering what it would feel like to not care about going back. None of the others could ever go back.
"So, Thor, do you know how to play poker?" Steve grinned.
"Definitely." Thor chuckled. "I must warn you, I'm very good."
"Oh okay, it's on." Steve stood, "we have a pack of cards, a couple are missing but we managed to get some paper and draw the ones we didn't have." He told Thor as they headed to one of the sides of the room.
The remaining four shuffled a bit closer to one another, and up close, Clint could see that Bruce was shaking.
"Hey, are you okay?" He asked quietly.
Tony gently squeezed Bruce from where he was pressed to his side. "Do you want me to explain?" He asked softly. Bruce nodded, teeth biting into his lip.
"He's scared. Nat's dad came after her and he...he's scared his will come too." Tony murmured.
"Oh, B. He won't, he absolutely won't." Bucky shook his head. "We had to go to the hospital, it was a risk we had to take but we'll be even more careful if we need to do it again. But we move often enough, we know how to avoid cameras. He won't find you."
"Nothing is gonna happen to you, Bruce. We're all going to look after each other and protect each other." Clint ducked his head into Bruce's line of view. "Yeah? That's what family does."
Bruce exhaled shakily, rubbing a trembling hand over his eyes. "I guess." He mumbled.
"We're going to look after you. That bastard won't get anywhere near you ever again." Tony murmured against his hair, pressing a kiss to the unruly curls.
Bruce nodded but didn't speak, tucking his head under Tony's chin.
"We're all gonna get through this." Clint murmured, more for Bruce but also because it was just nice to hear it.
Bucky nodded, eyes dark. He would fight anyone and anything to keep them all safe.
He lifted his head, nodding. "We'll get through this."