Little Things
For the @marvel-oc-hub Pride event, based on the prompt "Expand the rainbow". Katie's sexuality is heteroflexible.
Summary: Katie's having a bad day - ADHD overwhelm, General Ross snapping at her, drop, forget, one thing after the other. Can Sam cheer her up?
Rating: General
Warnings: Swearing, ADHD overwhelm, ADHD meltdown, mentions of PTSD
Word count: 1448
Notes: Neurodivergent OC. Also, Speed is a classic and I will hear no slander.
Thanks to @azriona for reading through before I posted :)
Tagging @taciturntraveller because it's Katie, lol.
Almost the second the door closed behind her, Katie's shoulders sagged in relief. The apartment in Avengers Tower was her sanctuary, the one place that stress and worry couldn't penetrate. In the time they'd been together, she and Sam had made it home, from the bright paintings hanging on the wall that tickled her ADHD to the engineering and mechanics texts that lined the bookshelves. Even the bedroom was a testament to their personalities: on her side, an end table scattered with jewellery, paper, a knife, one bullet for some reason she'd long forgotten, and an open drawer filled with clutter; on Sam's side, cleanliness, closed drawers, clean surfaces, and a clock set to the right time.
Katie smiled half-heartedly.
Sometimes she wondered how Sam put up with her chaos.
Kicking off her shoes, she padded her way to the kitchen and pulled out all the ingredients she'd need to make a quick and easy pesto pasta, then turned on the stove. As she poured the pasta into the pot and started stirring, more of the stress from the day melted away.
Ross had stopped by the tower and gone apeshit over their latest mission in the Alps. Especially over Katie's little side quest to the Nexus.
Reckless.
Stupid.
All kinds of blah blah blah had spewed from Ross's mouth.
It wasn't the tirade itself that necessarily bothered her. At least not on the surface. It was more the straw that broke the camel's back.
Katie'd never understood that expression. Was it supposed to be why some camels had two humps? Did camels carry straw often? Why would one tiny piece of straw break its back?
The water boiling over brought her back to the present.
"Shit!"
She pulled the pot away from the heat, cleaned what she could, and started over on a new burner at a much lower heat.
Ross always acted like a self-righteous annoying shithead, lording shit over everyone on the team in one way or another. For all Katie cared, he could spend the whole damn day belittling her and she wouldn't bat an eyelash.
On top of that, she'd gone out earlier with Nat and it had been Pride flags everywhere to celebrate Pride Month. While people were busy picking through the merch, joyously pulling flags from across the rainbow and displaying them proudly, not a single place had carried the heteroflexible flag. It was invalidating and heavy in a way she couldn't even begin to describe, just a nagging voice in the back of her mind telling her her feelings weren't just or right. People she'd never met somehow judging her without ever holding a conversation.
It built throughout the day. Little things mostly - a dropped straw, fumbling with her keys, forgetting her cellphone. Each one pushing her temperature higher, just edging the danger zone.
Then Ross had jumped down her throat.
And she snapped.
The arrogant prick had no idea what she'd needed at the Nexus, he just liked to complain. Especially when it came to her, every little ADHD quirk she had seemed to piss him off.
And to make things worse, Sam was off in New Orleans visiting his sister and nephews. If Sam had been there, she was sure he would've caught it before she went off and calmed her down in some subtle way. Maybe. There was a slim chance he would've been just as pissed at Ross.
Katie pushed out an angry breath, willing herself not to get worked up again as she stared at the dancing pasta noodles in her pot. Little bubbles pushed them up to the surface, and they'd float back down, only to be picked up again. The movement was almost soothing and Katie tried her breathing exercises as she watched the pot.
A small smile tugged at the corner of her lips as she realised that normal people counted sheep to relax, and there she was counting tiny pieces of rigatoni.
When the noodles were nearly done, she put the colander in the sink.
Another minute passed, and when she was satisfied with the state of the noodles - al dente was not her thing, she preferred a much softer noodle - she brought the pot to the sink and tipped it over the colander. Without thinking she reached up to help a stuck noodle and burnt her finger on the metal, dropping the pot into the sink with a loud clang. Noodles flew everywhere.
"Son of a fucking bitch!"
Tears pricked her eyes at the sight of the mess, but she closed her eyes and took a deep breath through her nose. Sam had shown her the technique ages ago, part of PTSD relaxation exercises he'd learned, and it seemed like it worked for her emotional dysregulation as well. She held the breath for four seconds, then slowly released. And repeated the exercise until she wasn't on the verge of angry tears.
After a quick clean, she put the surviving noodles in a bowl, mixed in some cheese, pesto, and veg, then made her way to the couch for a night of shitty action movies until Sam's nightly call.
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An hour later the number thirty-three bus was speeding down the freeway. The acting was terrible, the plot was loose at best, but you couldn't beat a young Keanu Reeves in 90s grunge clothing trying to save a busload of people from evil Dennis Hopper. As the LAPD pulled up alongside the bus, she heard the apartment door open and fought against rolling her eyes. It had to be Nat, coming to check on her now that Ross had left. Who else would just walk right in like that, with Sam out of town?
"I'm fine, Nat." The woman was a damn ninja, no wonder she knew the apartment door code. Either that or she had JARVIS to blame. "Seriously, just let me eat my carbs in peace."
There was no reply from the entry, nor did the sound of footsteps reach Katie's ears. But that didn't mean Nat had left.
Katie opened her mouth and started to turn around, when a teddy bear appeared in her field of vision. It was a light brown bear, only a few inches tall, and in its hand was a heart with the heteroflexible flag on it. Attached to the bear was a familiar hand, then an arm, finally a smiling Sam.
"Hey, baby."
All her worries melted away into her first genuine smile all day. "You're home early."
"And you are uncharacteristically still," he replied, walking around the couch as she put her pasta down on the coffee table. He dropped down next to her and pulled her sideways into his arms. "Natasha told me what happened."
"Did she also tell you I made a mess in the kitchen?" she sighed, tucking in against his chest. She draped a lazy arm around his waist and closed her eyes, drinking in the smell of Old Spice and coffee; the distinctly 'Sam' scent calmed her further. "I cleaned it. I mean, hopefully I got it all. I just...."
Sam dropped a gentle kiss on the top of her head. "Don't worry about it," he murmured into her hair. "You okay?"
She nodded against his chest. "Better now." From the corner of her eye, she caught sight of the bear where Sam had dropped it on the couch cushion, and reached for it. The fur was softer than she'd expected, and for a moment she lost herself in the feeling of her fingers rubbing into it. Of Sam's breath tickling the hairs on the top of her head. Somehow every feeling that she was less than, that she wasn't valid was pushed away by the bear. If she was valid and worthy in Sam's eyes, did it really matter what faceless strangers thought? "Where did you even find this?"
"Trade secret," he chuckled. "You like it?"
Katie bit down on her grin. "I don't know how you do it, Sam, but it's perfect." Angling her head up, she met his gaze. "Thank you."
Sam's fingers caressed her cheek, pulling a sigh that carried all her remaining troubles away. "You know I got you, Katie." With a soft kiss - or two or three - he laid back down on the sofa and pulled her with him.
As she tucked in against his side, she tried to focus on the movie, but with the weight of the day's emotions finally lifted, sleep didn't just call, it screamed. Her eyelids drooped lower and lower, not even the action on the TV could override the way Sam's gentle murmurings lulled her further under.
Maybe it wasn't such a bad day after all.
