Atlas | Avatar!OC x Bucky Barnes

25 - Home Invasion

Saturday, June 27th

Atlas had a shitty day.

Now that she was back at the Avengers tower, she couldn't train with the elements as much. The only good part of her day was when she ran into Steve at the gym and offered to spar with her. She did her best not to be passive-aggressive, but her anger showed when they spared. Although it was a big of a struggle and took a lot out of her, Atlas managed to kick Steve's ass. She soon left the gym without saying anything to Steve after that.

She had talked to Wanda and Nat about the conversation she overheard the night before. They did agree that Atlas was most definitely not naive, but did have something to say about their age difference now that it was pointed out.

And when she asked Tony about a location on the benders, he seemed annoyed with Atlas's nagging. Wanda had figured out from Joel that the base was somewhere in South Asia, closer to the southern end of China, but Joel was trained to deal with mind readers when HYDRA first gave Wanda her powers.

She was almost starting to feel rejected by the team. It was ironic; she had just been welcomed as a new Avenger, yet she felt more distanced from everyone than when she first got here. And all day, she couldn't shake the feeling that something was going to happen. Something bad. It was the same feeling she had experienced before her dad died. She was waiting for him one evening with a knot in her stomach that almost throbbed, and instead of her dad walking through the door to her house, the police knocked at the front instead. That same physical feeling had raised in Atlas just after she left the gym.

All she had to do was make sure nothing bad happened. And get through a dinner with the team that she felt was rejecting her.

~

7:00 pm

Altas perked up when she saw Bucky sitting on the couch by himself in the midst of all the Avengers talking with each other. She jumped over the railing and softened her landing with her airbending before she took a seat beside him.

"Hi," Bucky said, shutting his book and setting it down on the coffee table. "How was your day?"

"Uh, it was good," Atlas lied. "How was yours?"

"Not bad," Bucky said.

Atlas looked over at the book that Bucky was reading. "You're reading Jane Eyre," Atlas said, smiling at the book.

Bucky blushed slightly. "I saw you reading it one night. I thought I'd stop by the library to pick up a copy."

"Library?"

"Yeah, on the fortieth floor," Bucky said.

"Tony has a library? Like in the building?"

"Yeah," Bucky said, chuckling as a dumbfounded expression found its way onto Atlas's face.

"Oh my god," Atlas muttered.

"I got a hit!" Tony yelled as he burst through the elevator, holding a tablet.

"What?" Steve asked.

"Thanks to the additional information that Wanda got from our little interrogation with Joel, I found the base where all the benders should be," Tony said.

"...So where is it?" Atlas asked, clearly relieved that the Avengers could finally make a move and finish whatever HYDRA had started. Again.

"It's in Laos, in the northeast end of the province Louang Namtha. It's pretty close to China's border," Tony said, sliding his finger across the tablet and projecting a hologram of a map with the base's exact location. "We'll have a briefing tomorrow and discuss our next move. But for now, let's eat."