Thank you to Harliquinn for beta reading and editing
/\/\/\
The next day Skye woke up with her alarm and groaned. She was sore. She had fallen asleep in the late afternoon after training and slept straight through to the morning. She was surprised her dad hadn't woken her up for dinner. She tried to stretch, but it hurt her to do so, and she whimpered. She hadn't been sore when she'd gone to sleep, but as her body rested and adrenalin was gone, she was feeling the pain. She also felt a bit shaky. She knew her sugar was low, and she needed to get something in her now.
She forced herself to get up and go into the kitchen, where Bucky was sitting, enjoying a coffee. She went into the fridge, grabbed the carton of orange juice, and set it on the counter, grabbing herself a glass from a cupboard.
"Morning," Bucky said.
"Morning," Skye said as she chugged the juice as soon as she had filled the glass.
Bucky watched the girl, flashing back to memories of Steve doing the exact same thing before he went off to war.
"How low are you?" Bucky asked.
Skye looked at him. "How did you know?"
"I've watched your dad do the same thing many times when we were younger," Bucky said.
Skye nodded. It made sense. "I don't know exactly how low; I just know I'm low."
Bucky nodded.
"Probably because I slept through dinner," Skye said.
"Yes, your dad debated waking you up, but decided you probably needed the sleep," Bucky said.
Skye nodded. "Clearly I did, I only woke up with my alarm," she put the carton of orange juice away before going and starting to toast up some bread. "Where is everyone?"
"Most everyone was called out for an Avengers mission. Pepper left early with Morgan for an appointment," Bucky said.
"And you didn't go on the mission?" Skye asked.
"Nope," Bucky said.
Skye tilted her head. "Do I want to ask why?"
"I got injured in training yesterday, I was benched," Bucky said.
"Oh," Skye said.
"I heard you might be sore today, too," Bucky said.
"A little," Skye said.
When the toast popped, she smeared some peanut butter on it and put it on a plate. She grabbed the plate and went and sat down at the table with a slight grimace.
"Just a little?" Bucky asked.
"Yes," Skye said.
Bucky shook his head. "Well the rest of the team will be gone for a few days, so it will be quiet around here."
Skye nodded. When she was done eating she put her plate in the dishwasher.
"Happy went with the others, so I will be taking you to school til they get back," Bucky said.
"Okay," Skye said. "I will be ready to go in probably about half an hour."
"Okay," Bucky said.
Skye went to her bedroom. She changed into her school uniform and brushed through her hair, leaving it down for today. She grabbed her backpack and headed back to the kitchen, where she grabbed her lunch from the fridge.
"Did you make my lunch?" Skye asked Bucky.
"No," Bucky said. "Your dad did before he left."
"Okay," Skye said.
The two left and started the drive to the school.
They were quiet for the first half of the drive.
"You and my dad go to breakfast pretty often together," Skye said.
"Yeah, is that a problem?" Bucky asked.
Skye chuckled. "No."
"Why bring it up?" Bucky asked.
"Just making conversation," she said with a smirk.
"Yeah, Steve thought you might have picked up on something," Bucky said.
"Picked up on what?" She asked, her smirk was still evident.
Bucky shook his head without a response.
"I'm sorry," Skye said softly, realizing he was a little annoyed.
"Did you intentionally go out of your way to figure it out?" Bucky asked.
"No, I just can't help picking up on the little things, and how you both have been feeling," Skye said.
"You don't need to apologize, but your dad and I are keeping it quiet right now. You need to do the same," Bucky said.
Skye nodded. "That I can do."
"And I will be letting Steve know that you did figure it out," Bucky said.
"I figured you would," Skye said.
"Do you have any issue with us dating?" Bucky asked.
"No, absolutely not," Skye said.
"Okay, good," Bucky said. He pulled in at the school.
"I will be here after school to pick you up," Bucky said.
"Okay, thank you," Skye said as she got out and went inside.
Her morning went well enough. At lunch, she sat down at the lunch table with her friends and talked as they ate.
"How was your weekend?" Anna asked the group.
"We went shopping," Ivy said.
"We both got dresses for an upcoming event," Lily said, pulling up a picture on her phone of the two of them.
"They are so pretty," Skye said.
"What did you do?" Ivy asked Anna.
"Spoke to my family back home," Anna said.
"That's good," Skye said with a smile.
"What did you do?" Lily asked Skye.
Skye looked behind her to make sure no one who could cause her problems would overhear. "I met up with Tucker, and gave him a chance to explain himself."
"And?" Anna asked.
"The explanation and apology were enough for me to give him another chance," Skye said. "We ended up getting pizza and spending time in a music store looking at the records."
"Was it a date?" Ivy asked with a smirk.
"Ha, no. Just friends hanging out," Skye said.
"Did you two talk about the feelings?" Lily asked.
"No, we did not. I don't want to risk the friendship," Skye said.
The three girls nodded and they kept talking as they finished their lunch. When the warning bell rang they threw out their garbage before heading towards their lockers and then to their individual classes.
The rest of her day was a regular school day. At the end of the day, she went to her locker where Carly was standing with her arms crossed and smirking.
"What do you want?" Skye asked.
"So you have a crush on my cousin, huh?" Carly said.
"Not sure where you got that idea. Move, you're blocking my locker," Skye said.
Carly moved. "I have ears all over this school. I know about you hanging out with him this weekend. I know you have a crush, but don't want him to know about it and risk your friendship,"
"I'm not sure who your "ears" are, but they are lying to you about the crush. Yeah, we hung out. Not that it's any of your business," Skye said.
"We both know you're lying. I'm sure Tucker would appreciate me telling him about your feelings," Carly said as she walked away.
Skye let out a breath and grabbed the things she needed before heading to the door to the parking lot. She looked around for Bucky's car. When she saw it she went over and got in.
"Hi," she said to Bucky.
"Hi," Bucky said.
She did up her seat belt, and they started the drive home.
Skye took out her phone and sent a group text to her three school friends.
"I need to know who was sitting around us at lunch. Someone told Carly about our conversation, and she is threatening to go to Tucker about the crush I have on him," she sent.
She then sent a text to Tucker.
"Someone overheard me talking to my friends about us hanging out this weekend and went to Carly. Thought I'd warn you in case she tries to cause you problems because of it," Skye sent him before putting her phone in her bag.
"Texting your friends you just saw at school?" Bucky asked with a smirk.
"Yes, and a friend I don't go to school with," Skye said. She was clearly stressed.
"You seem stressed, what's wrong?" Bucky asked.
"I just hate bullies," Skye said.
"Someone giving you a hard time at school?" Bucky asked.
Skye nodded.
"You want to tell me about them?" Bucky asked.
Skye shook her head.
"Okay, but I'm here if you want someone to listen," Bucky said.
Skye nodded and looked out the window. She was quiet for the rest of the ride home. When they got home Skye went to her room and looked at her phone. She had texts from her three friends from school giving a list of names of those they remember sitting around them.
"Any of them that you know are friends with Carly?" Skye asked.
They all said they didn't know.
Skye groaned before she texted back, "Okay, thanks. Let me know if you think of who it could be."
She changed out of her school clothes and into some sweats before plugging her phone in. She grabbed a book for school and went to hide in the library to read.
A couple of hours later the door to the library was opened and Pepper stepped in and smiled. "So this is where you have been hiding."
"Sorry," Skye said softly.
"I was just teasing, but were you actually trying to hide?" Pepper asked.
Skye shrugged.
"Why?" Pepper asked.
"I just needed space away from others," Skye said.
"Nothing wrong with that, but you didn't need to hide to get that," Pepper said.
Skye nodded. "Were you looking for me?"
"Bucky has been," Pepper said.
Skye nodded and got up.
"He's in the living room," Pepper said.
She left the office and went to the living room. "You've been looking for me?" she asked when she found Bucky.
"Yes, where were you? Why did you not respond to my texts?" Bucky asked.
"I've been in the library; my phone is charging in my room," Skye said.
"Okay, I do not want to have to be the bad guy, but you need to make sure your homework is done," Bucky said.
"I've been reading a book for class," Skye said.
Bucky nodded. "Okay."
"I'm sorry I didn't let you know where I was," Skye said.
"It's okay, you were inside. You didn't do anything wrong," Bucky said.
"So why am I getting an annoyed vibe off of you?" Skye asked.
"Don't worry, it's not about you," Bucky said.
"Okay," Skye said. "I'm going to go do the rest of my homework."
Bucky nodded. "Okay."
Skye went back to her room she looked at her phone and checked through the texts from Bucky, and there was a text from Tucker.
"Thank you for the warning. She did text me telling me she knows we hung out and is pissed at me. But I don't care," Tucker had texted her.
"That's all she told you?" Skye texted back.
She sat at her desk and started to work on her other homework. When her phone buzzed, she looked at it.
"Was there something else she should have told me?" Tucker asked in the text.
"No," Skye texted back before she went back to her homework.
Shortly after she was called for dinner.
She put her pen down and went out to join Pepper, Morgan, and Bucky.
"How was your day at school?" Pepper asked her.
"It was school," Skye said.
"You have lots of friends at school?" Morgan asked.
"I have a few friends," Skye said smiling at Morgan.
They finished eating, and Skye helped Pepper clear up the table. As they were working Pepper's phone rang. She looked to see it was security from downstairs calling before answering the call on speaker.
"Hello," she said.
"Sorry to bother you, Ms. Potts. There is a young man down here looking to speak to Miss Rogers, a Tucker Nelson," the man said.
Pepper looked at Skye. "Did you know he was coming?"
Skye shook her head. "I had no idea."
"Should we let him up?" the man on the phone asked.
"It's up to you, Skye," Pepper said.
Skye shook her head. "I'm not really up to it."
"Not tonight," Pepper told the security officer on the phone.
"Okay, I will let him know," the man said before they ended the call.
Skye went to her room and looked at her phone before she curled up on her bed. Tucker wouldn't have just shown up if he didn't have a reason, and she knew the reason was because Carly had told him what she threatened to.
A few minutes later Bucky knocked on her door.
"Yeah?" Skye said.
Bucky went in. "Why didn't you want to see your friend?"
Skye shrugged.
"I know I'm not your dad, but I'm a good listener, and I can't help you if I don't know what's going on," Bucky said.
Skye sat up on the bed.
Bucky sat at the end of her bed.
"How much do you know about the whole Tucker and his cousin situation?" Skye asked, not sure what her dad had told him.
"His cousin is the one who was threatening you last year. It ended in an agreement to be civil with each other. Then you ran into Tucker during the summer and told him about the problems with his cousin and asked him not to get in the middle. He got in the middle, and you saw him this weekend to talk about things," Bucky said.
"And the conversation went well. We ended up getting lunch and browsing through a music store," Skye said.
"That's good, so what happened today?" Bucky asked.
"I was telling my friends we hung out a lunch today, and my friends know I've liked Tucker for a while. They asked me if I told him about it, which I didn't because I don't want to risk the friendship. But someone who is friends with Carly and who knows the situation told her what they overheard. She was at my locker at the end of the day and has said she is going to tell him I have a crush on him," Skye said.
"You think he showed up because she told him?" Bucky asked.
Skye nodded, "he wouldn't have just shown up randomly for any other reason."
"So, your plan is just to avoid him forever?" Bucky asked.
Skye sighed. "I obviously can't do that. But we can have the conversation on the phone."
Bucky nodded. "I get having feelings for your best friend, and I get trying to hide it and pretend you don't. But if he knows now, and you continue avoiding him, it will hurt your friendship more than if you just talk about it."
Skye nodded. "But both you and your best friend share the same feelings. I doubt Tucker shares mine."
"You can't tell if he does? With the ability you have?" Bucky asked.
"He is the only person I can't," Skye said.
Bucky nodded.
"So, call him, talk to him," Bucky said.
"Maybe tomorrow, I am pretty tired today," Skye said.
Bucky nodded. "Your choice."
Bucky got up and squeezed her shoulder. "I'll leave you to rest," he said before he left the room.
Skye got ready for bed and looked at her phone, taking a breath before texting him.
"I'm sorry, I'm just not up for talking tonight. I'll call you tomorrow," Skye sent Tucker before she curled up for bed.
