Birthdays were tricky by Mantis' own definitions. Her HYDRA file said her Project Initiation was February, but her viable conception and recorded growth was May 30th. Memorial Day. Fitting, really. She was brought into being the day that they celebrated fallen heroes. Considering what she was intended to be, it was highly ironic.
Her handlers had never made much of her getting a year older - unless you counted increasing her training regime; sometimes brutally - it was generally ignored. Becoming a year older wasn't celebrated in HYDRA. It wasn't classed as an achievement.
Outside of HYDRA, she was aware of the marked difference. She had witnessed people celebrating the fact they had survived for another year and really saw no need for it.
She had been invited to a classmate's birthday party - presumably because she was still the new kid at school. Amanda Buckman was one of those kids you thought of when you considered the popular kid. Blonde, peppy, athletic. She was regarded as all-american and a young girl that many parents aspired their own children to be like. Florence didn't like her - though she would be loathe to point out exactly why. There was something almost predatory about Amanda Buckman that she recognised in herself - and predators did not like competition. Despite that, Natasha had made it clear that Florence was to attend and participate.
The wrinkle in that plan was that two hours prior to the party commencing, Natasha had been given notice that she was required for an urgent mission - she couldn't refuse. An unexpected ally in her scheme - yes it was a scheme, Florence did not want to go - was Winter Soldier. He had agreed to be her parental chaperone and ensure that Florence did not weasel her way out of it - which was laughable really because of the two - he was the more unstable and he was going to attend a children's birthday party. Perhaps Natasha was testing them - or torturing, torture was always an option.
Winter Soldier had scattered recollections of birthdays - mostly childhood birthdays before the second world war - but he had experience with them. He seemed calm, given the fragmented state of his mind as he told her what parties had been like back then. Even he could not anticipate what the "modern" birthday party truly was and Florence saw no reason to tell him about her brief research.
When they arrived, dress and ribbons rippling in the wind as she stepped from the car - Natasha had completely shut down Florence's low-key shirt and jeans, it was a dress or nothing at all - Florence noted that there was one table entirely devoted to sugar and sweets that the kids were copiously eating from. Hyperactive screeching and mass rioting seemed to be in effect.
Soldier had chosen to attend in a sweatshirt and jeans - the shirt was long, giving him ample room to hide his metal arm - his hair had been tied up and hidden under a cap. He could have passed reasonably well for a normal, everyday parent - if said parent wore three day stubble, a rugged look about him and looked like he worked out frequently. The other adult attendees - all female, Florence noted - were taking great interest in him.
Someone she recalled as Mrs Buckman approached to welcome them and directed Florence to the table of sugar. 'You must be Flora's dad!'
Flora? Flora?! It was Florence. She was tempted to say something to the woman but she recognised the look of an elder who had completely written her out of the universe - the woman was focused instead completely on Soldier.
'Is it just you...?' She fished rather tactlessly in Florence's opinion.
'Her mother couldn't make it. Work.' Soldier replied.
'That's too bad, Natasha is a lovely woman Mr…?'
Soldier hesitated for a brief moment. 'Bucky.' He nodded. Behind him, Florence gave a world class eye roll.
'Well Bucky, why don't you come over here with us, let the kids run around for a bit - burn some energy.' She simpered and wrapped her hands around his arm. 'Natasha is a lucky woman, isn't she? You must work out a lot!'
Soldier had just enough time to turn and give Florence a plain look. Start trouble and there will be hell to pay. Natasha would probably want a full debriefing when she got back, then. Not that she could possibly start any trouble more loud and crazy than what looked like 20 sugar addled kids running riot.
He looked like he was about to have the same kind of fun that she was going to as he was led away with Mrs Buckman chattering away beside him. He looked like he was listening to every word she was saying but Florence knew that to be a lie. He picked up the odd key word, but mostly had blanked her out. She knew he had because he had the same stance whenever Natasha was ranting at length.
Florence turned her attention to the table of sugar. Sweets of any kind had hardly ever interested her - despite the rampant love of them most kids seemed to have acquired by her age. At HYDRA she was never allowed sweets - never allowed anything you'd consider real food. It was nourishing, no doubt, but bland. By the time she'd broken free, she saw no need for confectionary. It was all too sweet. It made her head ache and the taste lingered.
She snubbed the table and was just about to scout the area when she noticed her classmate coming towards the table. 'You made it!'
'Yes. Happy birthday Amanda.' She added, recognising the social convention and holding out the card.
'Thanks,' Her classmate replied easily as she took it but didn't even bother opening the envelope when she put it next to the pile of gifts. 'You look rockin' by the way.' Florence stared down at her outfit, not entirely sure that what she'd said had been sarcasm. 'I wanted to go princess theme, but mom was like "No way! I'm spending enough money." and dad agreed with her for once. She made me invite the whole class, which is a bummer, but I was gonna invite you anyway!'
She could think of nothing to say to that except that for having a good marriage, Mrs Buckman was being overly friendly with Soldier and that of the entire sentence, the only thing that she would believe Amanda was being nice about was the fact that even with a select guest list, Florence would probably have gotten an invite.
'We're just about to start pass the parcel! Wanna join in?'
'Sure.' Natasha had told her to play nice after all and Bucky had just underlined that fact. He couldn't very well refute her participation in this ridiculous party if she actively included herself in the games now, could she?
Turned out that pass the parcel was rigged. Florence was sure of it. It was rigged so that Amanda or those that seemed closest to her won most of the games. Normally, she wouldn't have cared since toys had never interested her - weaponry on the other hand, that was different - but Amanda had invited most of her class it seemed, all to show off and exclude them as much as possible.
Which, in Florence's opinion was bitchy.
With pass the parcel over with - she couldn't help but consider that it would have been more exciting and educational if the object inside had been a bomb, perhaps - several more people had drifted back to the table of sugar. Others, however, seemed to have had their fill of sweets and instead spent a fruitless few seconds simply chasing each other around until Amanda reappeared with a mesh bag loaded with basketballs.
'Who wants to play dodgeball?!' She was bouncing a basketball with a smirk. All that sugar and excitement meant that most of the girls immediately agreed. Some looked apprehensive, possibly remembering that Amanda was the school's star athlete. The reluctant ones were soon pressured into agreeing to the game.
Florence wasn't worried about losing dodgeball - after all, she was trained to deal with things worse than a heavy rubber ball smacking into her - but that didn't mean she was about to let Amanda get away with bullying her classmates because it was her birthday and she'd been forced to invite them.
She glanced over at the parents tables and noted that Soldier was not paying proper attention to her. He was too busy fielding or fending off Mrs Buckman's prying questions.
Excellent.
She knew what she was about to do would be considered a terrible use of her training and strengths - but Florence really didn't care. Amanda had been making her angry with her petty bullying and snobbery but mostly - thinking Florence would agree with her sentiments. Florence knew power and slavery. She'd been at both ends of the spectrum and while she would always prefer power over being an instrument, using it for something like this was a complete waste.
She watched as Amanda picked the two teams out and to her dark delight, she opted to make Florence the leader of the enemy team before cherrypicking the best sportsmen for herself.
That was fine. Florence didn't need the others. She just needed that one clear shot.
'You ready, Barnes?' Amanda mocked with a smile.
It was Romanova-Barnes and she knew it. 'Any time you are, Amanda.'
The game began and within a few minutes - half her team were gone, but she was focused wholly on the objective. Biding her time for the perfect shot. When it arrived - Florence pounced.
There were no set parameters for this game, it was a free for all and, as such, it had begun to move closer and closer to the tables of food. In the melee of flying balls, Amanda had moved to attack one of her team and had her back to the hated sugar table. Her defenses were down as she celebrated what looked to be a landslide victory.
Florence calculated the ball's trajectory easily and the force needed to knock Amanda back about three steps. It was an instinctive and fleeting set of calculations as she leapt and slammed the ball on the ground. It sprang back up with force and caught Amanda in the face.
The girl stumbled, clutching her nose and mouth, tripped and landed straight onto the table which folded around her instantly.
Soda, cake and bowls of loose sweets went flying as she became caught up in the cloth. The room seemed to have gone pin-quiet before a slow whine erupted from the mess.
Florence knew that the worst thing she could do now was look smug and appropriately schooled her features into bemusement as the adults reacted to the crying and finally began to pay attention to their children.
Soldier was first on the scene, followed by Mrs Buckman who gasped 'Amanda! What on earth happened?!'
'She did it on purpose!' The girl screamed in upset and pointed at Florence.
Eyes turned to look her way, but the mask of bemusement was still holding. 'We were playing dodgeball.' She replied simply. 'I hit her with the ball and…'
'You were playing too close to the tables.' Mrs Buckman concluded. 'Amanda, look at you! Look at your clothes!'
Soldier was coming to a different conclusion, Florence could see it. He knew that this was unlikely to be a mistake or error on her part - she'd done this on purpose.
'She did it! It was her fault!' Amanda all but screamed. ' She ruined my birthday! I hate you, Barnes!'
'Amanda!' her mother scolded and turned to Soldier. 'I am so sorry, clearly the party and all the excitement has gotten to her.'
'Florence?' Soldier demanded.
'I didn't mean to hit you that hard, Amanda.' She replied dutifully but inwardly, she was elated with the look of deep distrust that the blonde wearing chocolate frosting threw her way.
'No you're not!' She retorted. 'I don't want you at my birthday anymore!'
'Amanda!' Mrs Buckman scolded more forcefully. 'Bucky, I'm really sorry for her behaviour-
'
'Perhaps we should leave.' Soldier mused and pinned her with a look. She remained cherubic. Later, she realised that it had been just as much a giveaway as Amanda's bloody nose.
It wasn't until they'd been idle in rush-hour traffic that he turned to her and said 'You know I will have to report to Natalia.'
She played with one of the ribbons on her dress. 'I know.' She sighed dramatically. 'And I'll have to tell her about Mrs Buckman.'
He paused. 'Excuse me?'
She allowed a tight-lipped smirk to grace her lips as she looked up at him. 'What do you think she'll do to you - and Mrs Buckman - when she finds out the woman was flirting with you?'
'She wasn't flirting with me,' He denied grumpily.
'She was trying to.'
'Your mother won't care. She is not, by nature, a jealous person.'
Perhaps. She knew Soldier was. 'She won't trust you with little, impressionable me.' Florence hammered home her point. 'You were too busy flirting with the other attendees to watch me properly and I broke my classmates nose as a result.'
His hands tightened on the wheel until there was the sound of urgent creaking coming from the plastic around his metal arm. He seemed to be contemplating something. 'Your mother does not need to know anything beyond the fact we attended.' He decided with a monotone voice, as though testing that statement for weakness.
'No she does not.' Florence agreed and sat back with a smug grin at last. Class was going to be highly interesting tomorrow. She was looking forward to it really. 'Since we left early, we could do something else,' she suggested.
Soldier threw her a frown. 'That would be rewarding you for what you did.'
'I could always tell her, anyway.' She mused. 'I would be grounded, of course, but I believe most of the blame would lie with you.'
She could almost hear his teeth cracking as his jaw tensed. Finally he grit 'What do you want to do?'
'I want to watch a movie.' She replied.
'Casablanca?' Soldier frowned.
Florence snorted and then looked thoughtful. 'Some of my intellectually inferior classmates were discussing something called Star Wars in the compound.' She mused. 'Can we rent that?'
There was a pause from the driver as Winter Soldier debated whether he was letting Mantis get away with - when all was said and done - blackmail.
'Where's the nearest rental store?' He demanded.
'Two blocks from Widow's apartment.' She answered promptly.
He brooded for a second before he leaned over and began to reprogram the sat-nav. 'Natalia is going to kill me.'
A/N: Have a 2,500 word incident. There is a reason Mantis is not invited to other kids birthday parties. This is it.
Some of you may recognise the name Amanda Buckman. Let me refresh your memory. The name itself is taken from Addams Family Values. Yes, that preppy little creep. A friend and I were discussing how much Florence would identify with Wednesday Addams and I snuck it in there.
Props to Bucky for not flipping out at a kids birthday party, which may have been somewhat preferable to Natasha if - no - when she finds out about this.