Welcome back to hell. Just to be very clear before anyone gets ideas- Bucky and Lincoln have a strictly platonic relationship. Later chapters will reveal why that is. Sorry, I just wanted to clarify that before anyone thought I was shipping them together. Lincoln is Aromantic and Asexual, so that would never fly well anyways. If you're looking for a romance, perhaps find another author.

Also- Prepare for a bit of angst between Tony and Lincoln once again.

T. Rycbar Sucks

IDon'tOwnMarvel

"If they're sleeping here, some of them are going to have to double up."

Clint had to laugh at his wife's idea. "Yeah, that's not gonna sell."

"What about Nat and Dr. Banner?" Laura asked, wearing a small smirk as she followed him across the room. "How long has that been going on?"

Clint continued his search for a shirt, not really paying much attention. "Has what?"

His wife chuckled at that. "You're cute. I'll tell you when you're older, Hawkeye."

"Oh, okay." He furrowed his brow to himself, not really wanting to delve into the idea of two of his co-workers being a thing.

Laura watched him for a moment in silence that sort of confused him until she decided to speak up again as he pulled the shirt over his head.

"It's bad, right?" She asked, "Lincoln is with you and Thor looked pretty shaken up."

"Ultron has these allies, these uh, kids." Clint tried to explain, giving her a more comforting smile. "They're punks really. Someone's gonna have to teach 'em some manners."

His comforting smile fell to a small frown then. "Wait, what's Lincoln gotta do with this being bad?"

"I mean, she was missing for 2 years and then showed up out of the blue for a party with a bunch of people she doesn't like." Laura tilted her head a little, following him back across the room. "I think she must have known what would happen, and from what you've told me, she wouldn't show up unless it was big."

Clint had thought about her showing up because of the event, but decided to focus on the first thing his wife said. "She doesn't like us?"

Laura raised an eyebrow at him. "She's sitting in the jet by herself, looking over paperwork. There's at least one person in your group she doesn't like."

"Oh, yeah," Clint actually scoffed at the memory of their constant passive aggressive stares. "I think that would be Tony."

He knew very well how bad the water was between Tony and Lincoln. At first, he really thought that Tony would've taken nicely to Lincoln since they had similar hobby interests, but everyone was quick to learn that sometimes people were just a little too similar. The nicknames, the childish cover for fear- Their personalities were just a little bit too similar for Tony to handle. Clint could see them working it out, but really only if they ever tried to be honest with each other at some point. Unfortunately, truthfulness was neither of their strong suits.

"Yeah," Clint nodded at his own thoughts. "I don't know if I'm going to be able to stop her from leaving again after all this if the two of them don't work something out."

"You really think she'll leave again?" Laura frowned, "Why don't we just offer to keep her here? I mean, it's obvious that she doesn't feel like she belongs anywhere."

"She'd say no." Clint shook his head. "My guess- She wants to be as close to normalcy as she can for her. Staying in the same house as someone who was previously fictional to her is probably not on her list of ideas."

"You should still offer."

The conversation was quickly interrupted by two squealing kids running up the stairs. TC skittered in first with a sock in his mouth, moving a lot faster than it seemed possible for such a small creature. When he spotted the two sitting by the window, he dropped the sock and scaled up Clint's pant-leg and into his hands with the two kids bursting into the room after him.

They were both out of breath, but Cooper pointed to the lizard as if he was calling him out for a crime. "Your friend's pet stole my sock and then shocked me!"

"His name is Pascal!" Lila shouted right back in a very insistent tone.

Laura had a smile on her face. "Shocked you?"

As if to demonstrate then, TC looked directly at the children and opened his mouth, producing small purple sparks that rolled across his mouth. Cooper shrieked and ran back out of the room, leaving the sock behind on the floor and his sister gaping in awe.

"Pascal! You didn't say you were magical too!" Lila gasped, scooping up the small lizard again who sneezed from the stress, releasing more sparks.

"I think maybe Pascal has been spending too much time with Lincoln." Clint looked at his wife after his daughter left with the magical pet.

Laura just poked his side before starting out of the room too. "Offer her a place to stay before she disappears again."

"Yeah, yeah."

Asking couldn't hurt, after all. There was always still the off chance she'd agree, and Clint wouldn't mind adding one more kid to the mix.

Due to the strange link that the Ancient One created between myself and TC, I knew that if he really wanted to find me, he definitely could. Plus, I knew that currently he was sitting with Clint in the dining room of the house. It was strange how that connection worked, but considering how much I appreciated TC's support for me over the past year, I'd have to say I was pretty grateful for the little distinguished man. He was really one of the first real beings I felt a sense of trust in. Sure, the Ancient One was close to me, but she had a realm to protect and TC could travel with me all the time and listen to me bitch about the future without the risk of leaks.

So, you know, my best friend was a lizard.

Currently, I was seated in the jet and planning on staying put until the others joined. After all, timing was everything and giving away something even a minute too early here could tamper with how much of Ultron gets transferred into Vision. Those tiny differences meant the world when it came down to Vision's precise coding.

Thus, I stayed put until Fury showed up, of all people.

"What are you doing?" He demanded, getting me to look up briefly when I recognized the voice.

"Uh," I looked back down at the papers. "Filing."

He looked over the scene I had laid out before taking some more steps into the jet. "Shouldn't you be helping?"

"I am...helping." I flipped a report over to read the back. "Well, I did."

"I don't see you helping now." He commented, reaching down and picking up a picture of me from the small pile of where I sorted them.

It was a little weird having random photos of myself, taken by a stranger.

"Okay, Wazowski," I sighed, looking up at him with a tired expression. "I just had this conversation with Tony. I'll step in when I'm needed. Right now, they're problem solving and I already have the answer."

"What's the answer?"

I tossed up a hand in defeat. "If I coulda told you, I would've. They'll figure it out and then some of us will be off to...somewhere else."

Fury stared for a moment before moving to stand in front of me. "Is this timely information going to cost lives?"

I couldn't really help the small cringe that I did when he mentioned that. Dr. Cho's team would be dying. In fact, they were probably going to be killed in the next couple of hours. I'd gone over it many times now and every idea just seemed too risky when it came to tampering with Vision's brain. Thinking about the fact of me letting people die just made me feel shitty though, so I tried to avoid it.

Murderer. The boxes in my headspace whispered back at me with just a flash of a dead hydra agent passing my vision. I bit my tongue. I'm not afraid of them.

"So, yes?" Fury raised an eyebrow at my silence.

"I-" I opened and shut my mouth, feeling sick about having to defend myself when I didn't really think that a defense was valid. "I can't...stop them. I thought about it, and...I don't know. So many more people could be at risk if I mess with this one part. You have to understan-"

"Okay." Fury interrupted, nodding to himself and starting back out of the jet. "Have fun with the papers."

I blinked at his response, actually shocked that he wasn't yelling at me or… well, shooting me in the head. It was Fury. I don't really know how he deals with people he doesn't like outside of shooting and yelling at them.

Getting up quickly, I stepped over my piles of paperwork and chased after him out of the jet. "Wait, aren't you mad?"

"No."

I kept at his heel while he walked briskly back towards the house through the grass. "But I'm letting them die."

"Now I am too." He stopped abruptly, making me halt in front of him too. Fury narrowed his eye at me. "Isn't it so that more people can live?"

"Well," I looked to the left nervously and shifted in my place. "Yeah, but, they-"

"We're going to die anyway." He deadpanned. "They'll die just like they were going to if you weren't here."

"But I can't just let some of these things happen." I stressed, looking anywhere but at him. "Turning a blind eye is just as bad as committing the actual thing."

"And I could stand here and hold you at gunpoint until you told me who was going to die." He added, waving a hand to portray his point. "But I'm not. So by what you're saying- I'm guilty too. And everyone else inside for not doing the same. Mostly Stark because he's the one who made this fucking atrocity in the first place. And also both you and Dr. Banner for not stopping him-"

"Okay," I held up a hand, stopping him with a tighter feeling in my chest. "I get it. But you told me it was my fault when we talked in Mississippi."

"To get you here, yes."

"So you know that at the root of passing all the blame around- I'm there." I passed a glance at the house. "I didn't stop Tony from making Ultron, you could torture me for the information, but I wouldn't give it to you any more than I'd give it to Hydra when they had me, and now I'm letting these five people die. Putting other people in the place of blame doesn't automatically give me a pass."

Fury just gave me an unreadable stare for a moment before shaking his head and turning to walk up the stairs into the house.

I frowned at him. "I'm right. That's why you won't answer."

"No." He called over his shoulder. "You can't reason with someone who won't see the other side, Lincoln."

"I am seeing all sides!" I shouted back as he shut the door, leaving me alone to huff to myself in annoyance

The guy cannot admit when he's been beat. I glared at the ground and kicked a rock before starting back towards the jet. I am seeing all sides. They all lead back to me, especially when it involves people's lives. Fury just doesn't get it. Got his old man panties in a bunch since he was proved wrong.

I stopped when I stepped into the jet and looked back at the house with a small mental debate. I mean, checking on their progress wouldn't be so bad, right? I can just make sure they're on the right track and provide information after they get the important stuff down.

Taking a moment with the papers, I packed them back up into the folder and stowed them in a small compartment on the jet above the seats. One of the papers was folded up and tucked in between pages of my journal though, out of reach now in case someone here (Fury) might notice and try to get rid of it before I could find the origin. Worst-case scenario, I could just ask the Ancient One about it. She knew everything.

When I went back to the house a little bit later, I was careful about opening the door and slipping in as quietly as possible. The bulk of them must not have heard me because when I poked my head around the corner, they were all still deep in conversation. TC was seated on Bruce's shoulder while he studied a child's drawing. It was sort of cute.

I smiled slightly at the little man. Keep that up and I might start thinking you like them more than me.

"So what does he want?" Fury asked, just briefly glancing at my place in the doorway between the dining and living room.

"To become better," Steve replied first, tilting his head a little. "Better than us. He keeps building bodies."

Tony cut in next. "Person bodies. The human form is inefficient, biologically speaking, we're outmoded. ...But he keeps coming back to it."

"When you two programmed him to protect the human race, you amazingly failed." Nat averred, leaning back against the wall with her arms crossed.

Banner looked up quickly then from the drawing with an expression of clarity on his face. "They don't need to be protected, they need to evolve. Ultron's going to evolve."

The attention turned to him with Fury nodding at him. "How?"

"Has anyone been in contact with Helen Cho?"

"Wait, you don't think that's what he's using the vibranium for," Tony looked around, almost nervously. "Do you?"

"He's building a body." I inputted finally, feeling okay with the timing of my information now. "That's what the vibranium is for."

"Woah, how?" Natasha asked, wearing a more unreadable mask than everyone else in the room.

"Dunno." I shrugged awkwardly, "I'm not Dr. Cho. I do know that's what he's doing with it, and we need to take it from him."

"And you're telling us this...what, now?" Tony shook his head at me and tossed up a hand in annoyance. "Why can you suddenly say it now instead of four hours ago when I asked you?"

"I wasn't allowed to." I said simply, crossing my arms and leaning on the doorway. TC had since perked up from the sound of my voice.

"Why not?" He demanded, glaring at me now with none of the others bothering to step in and help me out. Instead they just looked like they were tired of listening to the two of us.

I pursed my lips and spared Fury a quick look. "The consequences of messing with time aren't exactly fun for the most part."

"Are you sure this isn't some kind of game to you?" Tony asked, silencing Bucky with a hand who actually looked like he was about to step in. "No, hold on, I wanna know. Is this some sort of fun past-time for you to spectate on? Because that's all you seem to be doing. Why haven't you just, say, run along home yet?"

"Tony." Steve snapped quietly, shooting the guy a glare while the solid hostile mention of my home hit me square in the gut.

"Oh, yeah, because you claim that you can't." He spat, ignoring Steve's obvious warning and the fact that I knew I looked a lot less confident standing in the doorway. "What really happened that was so bad that you couldn't go back? Was it something you did?"

I couldn't ignore the way my heart sank through the floor, a lump forming in my throat while I shrank back a little at this unexpected change of subject. The sadness dragged out for years in the form of nightmares, and now I was reliving at least eight different ones right now.

"Tony," Steve spoke in a more commanding voice, "That's enough."

"I'll bet it was." Tony took one, then two steps closer to me while completely disregarding the seriousness in Steve's threat. "So tell us, why can't you go back? Why can't you just run off and leave us out of your sick games? No one wants you here-"

Bucky stepped more between us, shoving Tony back to his place. "Say one more word. I dare you."

"Sure," Tony sneered, "Just add one more Stark to your list."

Bucky flinched at that, actually releasing him and looking back at Steve while everyone else was shooting daggers at Tony with their eyes.

"What the hell is wrong with you-" Clint started to speak, only for me to cut him off.

"Eight billion lives." I turned the stinging of tears in my eyes into anger real fast. After all, this was not Tony being afraid and defensive. This was hatred.

"Oh, look," Tony's eyes flickered at me with pure abhorrence. "She speaks now. Everybody listen to the little messiah, come to save us all."

"Stop talking." Steve growled, taking Bucky's place in front of him.

Okay, no more excuses for the spoiled brat.

"Eight billion lives were lost and you have the audacity to blame me for them?" I snarled, scowling like I was looking at Dormammu himself. "Eight billion fucking lives. A universe was torn apart - my universe was torn apart and disintegrated. My family and friends were scorched where they stood, their skin melting off their bones while I was tossed an impossible distance away and landed on this hellhole. Do you know how often I wish that I had been with them when it happened?"

I marched closer to him now, making Steve step back. "I have nothing left. I am the only evidence that they ever even existed in the first place. How would you like to carry the lives of 8 billion people, 1.9 billion children by the way, on your shoulders? Let me tell you - it's not a fucking walk in fantasy land. Because now if I succeed in tossing myself off that same bridge my sister did, all those people might as well have never existed at all."

The tingle that ran up my spine at the use of my powers was suddenly coming into my span of awareness and I forced myself to back down slightly so I didn't kill the unfortunately necessary man in front of me. Sparks rolled off my fists as I relaxed my hands at my sides.

"I would love to go back." I gritted my teeth through the tears. "Unfortunately, there isn't much left to go back to. Thanks for reminding me."

Tony clamped his jaw shut at that, looking between my eyes for a moment. The second he looked away, I turned and walked back out of the room. In hindsight, maybe going inside was a bad idea.

Shoulda stayed in the jet. I mentally berated myself, scooping up TC as he caught up to me before shutting the door behind myself on my way back. Can't stay out of trouble, can you, Linx?

Nice going, Tony. You just couldn't keep your giant mouth shut, could you?

Tony pursed his lips, actually choosing to be quiet while the kid marched back out of the house. To be entirely honest, he did not think that was going to turn on him so fast, but as per fucking usual, he made the mistake of letting shit build up until he lashed out.

The second the door shut behind Lincoln's retreating form, all the eyes in the room switched to glare at him.

Uh oh, Tony winced. This...wasn't going to end well.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" Fury snapped, beating everyone else in the room to the chase.

Tony opened his mouth to answer. "I-"

"You know what, no." Steve interrupted him, holding up a hand. "I don't want to hear your excuses this time."

"I didn't know." Tony replied shamefully, casting his eyes away from Barnes too.

Really gotta work on that filter Pepper is always pestering me about.

"Did you just justify scaring off our only shot at figuring out what the hell is going on here with 'I didn't know'?" Fury got to his feet to stand more threateningly. "The lengths I went through to get her here were...substantial, even by my standards. That's pretty fucking high, considering who I deal with on a regular basis, Mr. Billionaire, Playboy, Philanthropist. And now, you've just given her every reason to leave. Well done."

"Natasha, I swear, if this idiot says anything else, I might put his head through a wall." Clint growled, glaring Tony down.

Natasha was giving Tony a similar look which was...frightening considering her normal lack of expression. "Trust me. I won't stop you."

Tony really tried to place a moment when he felt as bad as he did now, but he was only drawing blanks. Except maybe when I found out my weapons were being used by terrorists. Or perhaps that other time when I unleashed a murder-bot on the word. Then, of course, the rest involved the kid that just stormed out, so he was starting to wonder if messing up all the time might be a trend with him.

Really? He mentally chastised, hating himself more by the second. How many times is it now that you've been the direct cause of upsetting the kid?

"Wow, I don't mean to barge," Laura scoffed from the kitchen. "But if she didn't hate you before, she sure as hell does now."

Tony made a move for the door, really just wanting to be away from all of the accusing stares leveled at him. "I should talk to her."

"Don't." Steve held an arm out in front of him, blocking his path. "You're not going near her right now."

"Why is it that every time you're around the kid," Fury started, taking a step closer with an accusing stance. "She ends up hurt or missing?"

Tony fell back into his uncharacteristic silence, fully aware that he was wrong but unwilling to admit it to the others. First Hydra, then she ran away, then she came back and ran away again but for 2 years. How many times does she have to disappear for me to finally get a grip?

He shifted back from the door and Steve's arm, making it clear that he was actually listening to the soldier now.

"Let's clean up Stark's first mess before we work on the second one he just created." Steve's voice cut through the silent anger in the room. "I'll take Clint and Natasha."

I hopped myself up into the jet, wiping away the tears as they came before sitting down with my head in my hands to cry about it. You know, like a little bitch who hasn't had two full years to get over it. Honestly, you'd think I lost them yesterday.

I probably deserved that. I sniffled, taking in whatever comfort that TC provided. I mean, I can't expect to just show up and get along with everyone, especially not the overly egotistical man I used to admire excessively with my sister.

TC did help me relax a little to the point where I probably didn't look awful when Steve, Bucky, Clint and Natasha joined me in the jet. Tony and Bruce had probably set themselves up with Fury since he also came in a jet. They had other things to do while we all chased down something in Seoul.

Clint went right to the cockpit, but Steve stopped short in front of me while I laid back on the seats to play it off as if I'd been relaxed the whole time.

"I'm sorry," Steve glanced out the hanger door. "About what Tony said. I should've stopped him."

"It's not your fault." I shrugged haphazardly, petting the lizard in my hands. "Tony just likes to be a vexatious fuck sometimes."

"Woah, Steve," Nat pointed at me from where she just sat down. "She's using a bad language word."

I actually cracked a smile at that. "So, we headed to Korea?"

"Yeah," Steve moved over to sit by my feet with Bucky. "You coming with us?"

"Well, I'm not getting in the other jet." I muttered, looking past my feet at the two of them. "Sorry about Tony, Mr. Barnes. That was a really shitty thing for him to say to you."

"He said a lot of shitty things." Bucky agreed quietly before glancing my way. "He already apologized though, so it's okay."

"Oh," I frowned a little to myself, seeing as that was a little off-script for the guy. "Still."

Re-reading my journal for probably the hundredth time was a good way to pass the extended trip across the world. My pet lizard decided that Steve was a better heating pad while I flipped through pages and then pulled out a pencil to work on my portrait of Groot, thinking about the events that were about to take place. However, I could not get Dr. Cho out of my head while I worked. Much like the unfortunate case of Maya Hansen, whose page I found myself on for a brief moment, I would probably be thinking about Dr. Cho and her team for a very long time after this.

Steve spent some time going over the plan complete with what-if's and I listened closely, also offering up some information about how this would go down. They could always use a fair warning on the fact that both Pietro and Wanda were going to be there but not as hostile as they were before. I ended up being nominated to stay in the jet too with Bucky, Natasha, and Clint since Bucky still wasn't on the list of people who could do things, Natasha needed to be ready for the inevitable truck chase I warned them about, and Clint was the only one of us who knew how to fly the jet. So, we stayed together when we ended up over South Korea and Steve was dropped off alone on the facility roof.

I felt sick when Steve left, knowing exactly what he was going to be finding inside.

"You alright, Link?" Bucky asked, apparently having noticed my uneasy expression before I could look away.

I nodded, trying to collect myself enough to not feel awful. "I'm fine."

Dr. Cho's voice came through the coms then, making me want to melt through the floor in shame before I couldn't handle listening to her voice and had to remove the device from my ear. Bucky was giving me some look that I didn't bother to read as I looked the opposite direction and attempted to keep from feeling like the worst piece of shit alive for letting Dr. Cho and her team fall victim to the murder-bot.

I actually expected to be alone with this feeling until Bucky moved to the seat directly beside my own as if there weren't eleven other seats in the jet and slipped his hand into mine. I felt the cooler metal against my skin and had to look down in complete confusion while Bucky seemed to think that a spot on the wall was more exciting. Opening and shutting my mouth, I ended up seeing it as not something that had to be addressed as I closed my hand with his too and looked back to the cockpit with my earpiece being put back in place.

Natasha pulled aside a monitor from where she was standing and started checking it. "I've got a private jet, taking off across town. Private maifest. Could be him."

"No. That's not him." I voiced quickly. "It's a truck. I'm sure of it."

Clint looked down then over the freeway. "Right above you, Cap. On the loop by the bridge. It's them. I got three with the Cradle, one in the cab. I could take out the driver."

"Negative!" Steve called back, "If that truck crashes, the gem could level the city. We need to draw out Ultron."

The pause of silence matched with a few occasional thumps over the coms came to an end when Steve spoke up again. "Well he's definitely unhappy! I'm gonna try and keep him that way."

"You're not a match for him, Cap." Clint relayed, occasionally peering out of the side window to the ground.

"Thanks Barton."

I resisted the urge to get up and look out the window with him, and instead, slipped a seatbelt over my waist with a funny look from Bucky. Natasha had moved further back in the plane while TC watched the fight from his place on Clint's lap.

"We got a window." Clint called back to Natasha. "Four, three, two... Give 'em hell."

Natasha dropped out of the jet on her bike, no doubt chasing after the truck with Steve and Ultron. Bucky looked down to his own seatbelt before cautiously putting it on too, not letting go of my hand while he did.

"Clint, can you draw out the guards?" Natasha's voice came over the coms now that she'd taken off too.

"Let's find out." The archer smirked, "Hang on back there."

As he started to fire at Ultron, I squeezed Bucky's hand a little tighter, never really being one for fast rides. Clint turned us around then and picked up speed away from the bots chasing us now.

Hey, I mean, no time like the present to get used to superhero speeds. I tried to comfort myself while Bucky really just looked like he was having a blast. How does he do that? This is horrifyi-

I bit my tongue when we went straight up and started spinning. "I shoulda just sucked it up and went with Tony."

Bucky chuckled at that right as we levelled out, removing his hand from mine to tousle my hair. "Took it like a champ. You know, with your history, one would think you'd be fine with a bit of reckless tossing through the air."

I released a breath at that, swatting his hand away. "Yeah, one would think."

Clint turned us back towards where Steve and Nat were currently speeding around on the highway. I unclipped my seat belt then and Bucky followed quickly after.

"The package is airborne." Our pilot announced while I used a bar on the side of the jet to keep myself upright. "I have a clean shot."

"No," I stopped him quickly. "Natasha's still in there."

"Well, what the hell is she…?"

"Just be ready." Natasha called over the coms. "I'm sending the package to you."

Clint sighed a little to himself with a slight shake of his head. "How do you want me to take it?"

"Uhh you might wish you hadn't asked that."

"I lost him!" Steve shouted, "He's headed your way."

"Nat we've gotta go." Clint said, holding the controls a little tighter.

I exchanged glances with Bucky as we both assumed the position by the hanger door as it opened up. The cradle came flying in and both Bucky and I caught it so it wouldn't slide with Natasha being snatched at the last second, much to my shock and then sudden clarity.

"Oh, shit." I pressed a hand to my forehead. "Why didn't I write that down?!"

"Write what down?!" Clint shouted back while Bucky stared at the opening with me. "Nat?!"

"She's fine!" I held up a hand, feeling a little panicked as I looked around. "Right. Bruce gets her. She's fine! I-I just- I think I...forgot."

"You better be right." Clint glared at the windshield and pulled us away from the scene.

The hanger door shut while I tried to catch my breath and reached for the journal. Bucky was quick to catch my hand though. "Hold on."

"I need- I need to check." I demanded, trying to wave him off, only for him to catch my other hand with a small frown.

"You don't."

"Stop it."

Bucky narrowed his eyes at me, unfortunately reminding me of the way Tony looked when he was yelling at me earlier. "Hold on. It already happened. Nat was taken. You can't change it."

"Yeah, but what if I missed it?" I stressed, making another grab for the journal when he slipped it out of my pocket and held it away from me. "Bucky!"

"I'll give it back." He tried to assure me, still holding it out of my grasp with a serious stare that I just glared back at. "Relax. You said she's fine. Why are you upset?"

"I'm not upset." I snapped, scowling at him. "And I'm not a child. Give it back."

"Is Natasha going to be fine?" He asked, raising an eyebrow and making me huff a sigh, crossing my arms.

"Yes."

"Thank you." Bucky gave me a condescending smile. "Quit bugging out over things you don't remember. If she's fine- she's fine. No use crying about it."

"I'm not crying." I grit my teeth, snatching the journal back and rounding to the other side of the cradle to get a better look while skimming over the journal. I had not, in fact, written anything down about Natasha getting kidnapped by Ultron. You know, like an idiot. I made a face at nothing, muttering to myself. "You're crying about it."

"I can hear you."

"Fuck off." I grumbled, tucking the journal back away and looking down at what was going to be Vision very soon. The small smile that took over my features was sort of unavoidable while I spoke in a more hushed tone. "You have no idea how long I've waited to meet you. I bet you're a lot nicer than Tony, huh? Yeah, okay, I guess that's not exactly a hard standard to beat."

Bucky fell silent, giving me a questionable stare as I ignored him in favor of speaking to someone that I'd hopefully be able to get along with.

Hopefully.