Broken Flock (11/??)
Summary: It’s been two years since you uprooted your life and left to figure out who you really are, leaving behind Bucky and Clint with little more than a note as a warning. Now, New York is calling your name and it’s time to go home. How will Clint and Bucky react to your return, and how will the time have affected your relationship?
A/N: Okay I’m actually kind of really excited about this chapter. I feel like it got away from me a little bit for a sec there in the first half. That being said, I really love the end of this chapter, and I hope you guys will as well. Please enjoy!
Page dividers by @carryonmyswansong
Pairing: WinterhawkxReader
Word Count: 2.8k
Warnings: Discussion of human experimentation (not in depth), Discussion of politics (the Accords)
Part 10
“I didn’t expect to be stuck in a conference room for this.”
“Trust me,” Steve says. “I didn’t think it’d come to this either, but-”
The door bursts open and everyone turns to look. General Ross stands in the doorway, hands behind his back. He looks too smug for my liking. If I weren’t so sore, and if I knew I wouldn’t get in trouble, I’d wipe that look right off his face.
Steve groans. “We had a change of plans.”
“Ah, so good of you to join us, Ms. (Y/L/N),” he says. He strides through the room to stand at the head of the table and address us. “I was beginning to wonder where you’d gone.”
“Last I checked, I don’t answer to you,” I snap. “None of us do.”
“You dropped off the map for a good two weeks.”
“I was kidnapped.”
“Even so-”
“What the hell is this about?” I cut in. “Because I was under the impression that this meeting concerned myself and the Avengers alone. Not you and your little government issued lackeys.”
“You’re awful hostile for someone speaking to her superior,” he ground out.
“Who, me?” I glance around at everyone in the room. “I’m a civilian and the Avengers are a private organization. I don’t work for you, Ross. None of us do.”
“You will,” he says. “When the Accords are put into governmental procedure.”
“See, I don’t know if you’re ever going to make headway with that little project of yours.” I shuffled around in my seat before leaning on the table. “Considering the fact that you refuse to work with one of the biggest players in this, who knows how many signatures you’ll get.”
“To what do we owe the displeasure, Thaddeus?” Tony asks.
Ross’ eye twitches. “You missed your deadline.”
“We were a little preoccupied in finding (Y/N),” Steve says. “As she said, she was kidnapped. You would know this if you’d read any of the correspondence we sent you concerning this.”
“And we wouldn’t be in this position if you’d quit running in circles and rejecting any kind of amendments we suggest,” Bucky adds. “We’ve been trying to work with you on this for months, yet you never seem to be able to make up your mind on what you want from us.”
“He wants complete and total control over the Avengers,” I say.
“Excuse me?” Ross grinds out.
“I said, you want to control the Avengers,” I repeat. I look to Natasha. “Did I stutter? I don’t think I stuttered.”
“Not that I heard,” she says.
I look Ross dead in the eye. “Do you need me to speak up? Or would it be helpful if I just signed instead?”
“(Y/N),” Steve warns.
I glare at Ross, but sit back in my chair. “Sorry.”
“You’re not in trouble,” Steve says. “But I don’t want you to say anything incriminating.”
I simply nod and keep quiet. Steve gestures to Tony, who stands to face General Ross.
“We weren’t planning on announcing this today, but we’ve given your proposal some serious thought, and we’ve decided to turn you down,” Tony says.
“You’re what?!” Ross hisses. “You can’t do that!”
“Can’t we? Because we’ve been operating independently for the past two years, and things seem to be going just fine. The only major incident we’ve dealt with since Sokovia-”
Ross interjects, “Which was your fault, if I’m remembering correctly.”
“Shut the fuck up, Thaddeus,” I snap. “You don’t get to interrupt people just because you’re a General.”
Clint snorts and I squeeze his knee in a silent plea for him to be quiet.
Tony clears his throat. “As I was saying, the only incident we’ve dealt with since Sokiva has been (Y/N)’s kidnapping. And we managed to find her just fine, no thanks to you.”
“And,” Natasha says. “If I’m remembering correctly, we’ve been fully functional since S.H.I.E.L.D. went under, even without asking for any assistance from the likes of you.” She tilts her head to the side and folds her arms. “And yet you expect us to just hand ourselves over to you.”
“You just don’t get it, do you?”
“No,” I say. “I think we understand perfectly. You think that the Avengers have too much power. The only way that you can see to ensure no one gets hurt is to put a leash on them. And I can see where you’re coming from, and your care for the public, if you can even call it that, is commendable. But this ass backwards, roundabout route you’re taking is absolutely fucking absurd.”
“You said you’re not part of this team!”
“I did, but I never said I didn’t have any kind of stake in whether or not the Accords are approved. I have powers, remember? I’m directly affected by whatever kind of legislation is put in place because of those Accords. But you could never understand that, because you’ve only ever seen people like us as power hungry egomaniacs. But look around.” I gesture to the room. “No one here asked for what we got. Bruce and I were accidents, Steve was a scientific crapshoot, regardless of how successful, Bucky was kidnapped and brainwashed and experimented on without his consent, Natasha and Clint’s backgrounds are questionable at best, and Tony was blown up by his own bomb. His first suit was built out of necessity, not curiosity or the need to seize power.”
“(Y/N)...” Bucky murmurs. He takes my hand and squeezes it gently.
“By all means, work with the Avengers. But quit acting like you’ve got the moral high ground, because all you've done is set up roadblocks and refuse to compromise in any capacity."
Ross looks down his nose at me. "You've got a lot of opinions for someone so vehemently against being part of their team."
"Well, you’re ready to imprison any single powered person who doesn’t sign, simply because you deem us to be threats.” I narrow my eyes. "But last I checked, you can't arrest someone for having opinions."
"Maybe not, but you certainly seem to know more about the Accords than what's been made available to the public-"
"We've kept her up to date with the proceedings," Steve says. "She has every right to know about something that would change the way she lives her life."
"That's not a decision for you to make."
Steve simply shrugs. "You never said anything about our discussions being confidential."
“Why you-”
“You do see the position you’ve put us in, right?” Steve presses. “We’re trying to work out ways to protect our loved ones, powers or no, and still do our jobs, but you keep blocking every single suggestion we make. You want us to cooperate, but you make it impossible.”
“You say that as if you’re not trying to bend the Accords to work for you.”
“No,” Tony says. “That’s what you’re doing. Your unwillingness to collaborate with just proves (Y/N) right. You don’t want to work with us. You want to control us. Because we’re not predictable, and that scares you and your little government buddies.”
Steve rises from his seat and stares Ross down. “See, we’d be happy to work with you. But that means working with us.”
Ross tries to protest, but shuts his mouth when Bucky stands abruptly. Bucky’s glare can only be described as glacial. No one says a word.
Ross shifts closer to Steve and Natasha shoots up from her chair. Clint, Tony, and I follow suit. I shake out my wings to make myself look bigger than I am and squint at General Ross. He’s startled to find all of us resisting him and turns back to Steve, only to find him with a similarly cold expression and his arms folded across his chest.
“If you’re not going to work with us,” Steve says. “I suggest you leave.”
“Fine.” He looks around the room at each of us. “But I will be back.”
“Until you’re ready to compromise, you’re not welcome,” Tony quips. “But we’ll gladly escort you out.”
Ross seems to know he’s been beat and makes a hasty retreat. His lackeys follow him from the conference room and down the hallway, back to whatever they arrived in. When I’m sure they’re gone, I sink back into my seat and cover my face with my hands. My heart is beating out of my chest and every ache from two days earlier is back with a vengeance.
“Are you okay?” Clint asks, placing a gentle hand on my shoulder.
I nod and turn to press my face to his shoulder. “Too much excitement for one day, that’s all.”
Clint hums in agreement. “I don’t think he’ll be back for a while.”
I laugh. “Of course he won’t, he got stared down by a room full of Avengers. He probably shat himself as soon as Nat stood up.”
“Of course he did,” Clint grins at Natasha. “She’s terrifying.”
Natasha snorts and Clint tries to make another joke to actually make her laugh. Steve watches them and I wait till I can catch his eye to say something.
“Is it safe to assume that wasn’t part of the plan today?” I ask.
Steve sighs. “No, it wasn’t.” He glares at the door. “General Ross seems to have a bad habit of showing up when he’s least wanted.”
“And ignoring anything he doesn’t want to hear,” Tony adds. “I swear, we sent him at least three notices about the delay, and he just ignored every single one of them.”
“You seriously put off negotiations to find me?”
“Of course we did, (Y/N),” Tony says. “You’re family. You know what we do for family.”
I frown. “Drop everything.”
“Exactly.”
“You didn’t have to do that.”
“Yeah, sweetheart, we did.” Bucky takes my hand. “We weren’t going to leave you behind after everything we did to find you last time.”
Tears prick at the corners of my eyes. I blink them away and whisper, “Thank you. All of you. Really.”
“There’s nothing to thank us for,” Natasha says. “Don’t argue with me about this.”
I laugh, but sniffle a moment later. “Okay, I won’t.”
“You wanna tell us why you actually wanted to meet?” Clint asks.
“Right,” Steve shifts in his seat. “We believe that we’ve apprehended everyone involved with your kidnapping, (Y/N). They’ll be tried and probably sentenced before the end of the month.”
“Oh, wow.” Surprised, I look between Steve and Tony. “I forgot how quickly you work.”
“We put in a rush order for our favorite Sesame Street character,” Tony says.
I laugh. “So I’m Big Bird now?”
“Well, you’re smart, you care about your friends and family, and you’re nice. Well…” He gestures vaguely. “Most of the time.”
“I’ll take it.”
Tony hums. “I started looking into Hoffman’s research, and it’s pretty grim stuff.”
“Oh?”
“A lot about genetic mutation and splicing animal DNA with human. From what Banner and I have found, she’d been doing this for a long time, and getting away with it, too. Based on her notes from the last five years, you’re her most successful experiment, and she didn’t even know you existed until six months ago.” He sighs. “I won’t go into too much detail, but the plans she had… she’s bad news in every sense of the phrase.”
“I got lucky, then.”
“I didn’t want to say that, but yeah. You did.”
“I see.”
“I’m sorry, (Y/N). You shouldn’t’ve been mixed up in any of this in the first place.”
“It’s not your fault. She would’ve caught up to me eventually. It’s not like ten foot wings are easy to hide.”
“All of that aside,” Steve says. “They’ll be going away for a long time. The rest of their lives, if we can manage it. They won’t be able to get to you ever again.”
I nod. “What’ll you do about Ross?”
“If we can manage it, we’ll keep pushing for reformed Accords. None of us want to be limited in what we can do, but it was easier to operate when we had the power of a government agency or two to back us up.” Steve shrugs. “If he can’t agree to that, we won’t be signing.”
“And you’re all cool with that?”
Tony nods. “We’ve argued over this for months, and getting your insight as someone on the outside helped as well. We’re not backing down from this.”
“Good. There’s no reason to roll over just because some dickhead bully demands it. He needs your support on this. He’s blind if he can’t see that.”
“Our thoughts exactly,” Steve says.
“Has she been cleared to go home yet, though?” Clint asks.
Steve nods. “She’s good to go as early as tomorrow morning.”
“Great,” Clint says, his relief obvious in his voice. “Simone has to go out of town on Saturday and without her, there’s no one left to dog-sit.”
Natasha rolls her eyes and Tony makes makes a joke about Clint’s loyalties lying elsewhere. I can’t pay attention to any of it, though. My thoughts keep straying back to what it’ll be like to be back in my apartment and away from the rest of the team. I can’t help thinking that it’ll be a little more peaceful, especially with the constant sounds of the settling apartment building around me.
Bucky squeezes my hand and I shake the fog from my head. “Hm?”
“You okay?”
I try to reassure him with a smile. “I’m fine. Just trying to plan what we need to do to get ready to go tomorrow.”
“We’ll head out bright ‘n early tomorrow. Okay?” I nod and he kisses my forehead.
“You’re sitting in the back, Clint.”
“What? You know I get carsick.”
“You don’t get carsick, you just don’t like the legroom in the back.”
“Can’t help that, Bucky, I’m a tall guy!”
Bucky rolls his eyes. “You know (Y/N) needs the front seat. She can’t sit normally because of her wings.”
Clint scowls. “Then let me drive.”
“Hell no, you’re a nightmare behind the wheel.”
“You’re no fun!” I clear my throat and both men look to me and smile. “Hey! You’re finally up.”
I shake my head. “I was up an hour ago, I just wanted to make sure I had everything.”
“Oh, right.” Clint strides across the driveway and takes my bag from me. “We were just-”
“Squabbling,” I laugh. “I know. It’s what you two do best sometimes.”
“We can do other things too,” he mumbles.
Bucky shakes his head and joins Clint and I. “Ignore him. He’s just grumpy because someone called about a burst pipe in the basement.”
“Oh shit.” Clint scratches the back of his neck and I place my hand on his arm. “Have you called someone yet?”
“Yeah, they already showed up, but it won’t be a cheap fix.”
“It’ll be fine, I’m sure. We can get it sorted out when we get back, right?” He nods and wanders off to pack up the car.
Bucky hooks his arm around my waist and I tilt my head up to kiss his cheek. “You’re looking better this morning,” he says.
“I slept really well last night. Probably has something to do with you two.”
“You give us too much credit, (Y/N).”
“I don’t think you give yourselves enough.”
He smiles and shakes his head. “I’ll go get the car set up.”
“Okay. I’ll be over in a minute.”
I stand back and watch them move around the car. Clint scoops up two more duffel bags, I assume they’re his and Bucky’s, from beside the car and places them in the trunk. Bucky puts the passenger seat down and I can see him roll his eyes when Clint sidles up beside him and says something close to his ear. Clint laughs when Bucky pinches his side and I can’t help smiling.
It suddenly hits me how thankful I am that I have both of them. I don’t know what I would do without them, or even where I’d be right now if they weren’t in my life.
My smile slowly slips away as I realize that I love them. Different from when we first met and more than I did when I left.
My heart flutters and I press my fingers to my lips, just letting the realization wash over me. I’m not scared. Just peaceful. This feels right.
“You okay, (Y/N)?”
I refocus and meet Clint’s eyes. “Hm?”
“You were zoning out,” he says. “Are you feeling alright?”
I smile. “I’m good. Nothing to worry about.”
“You sure?”
I nod and approach the car. “Mhm.”
He wraps his arm around my shoulders and kisses the top of my head. “Okay, good.”
“Help me into the car?”
“Of course.” He grins and gestures to the open passenger door. “Your chariot awaits.”
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Part 12
How’s that for an ending? I’m pretty fond of it, personally. I promise this isn’t the grand ending, but we’re getting close, I think. But for now, we know that the reader loves her boys, and that’s what really matters.
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