Unloved - (Fem Reader X Bucky Barnes)

Chapter 41 - Planning

The next day Dad had completely built the Quantum tunnel, Clint was gonna do a test run.

Before I walk into the large room, Nat stops me and pulls me aside. "So...did you have fun yesterday." She smirks.

"What are you talking about?"

"You and Steve." She winks.

"Yeah...it was fun training with him."

"Really?" She tilts her head. "Oh Steve...right there Steve!" She starts fake moaning.

I slap my hand over her mouth and shush her, "You were here?"

She laughs as I remove my hand, "Just heard the end of it....I'm happy for you."

"It was a one time thing. Both of us needed it...that's all." I nod.

"Hmm....I wish I was the only one here instead." She smirks, walking off.

I stand there my my mouth open in shock and my eyes wide, staring at the empty spot in front of me. "What's with the face? Come on." Dad flicks my face.

"Nothing..." I whisper, walking behind him.

I stand beside Steve and watch as Clint stands on the platform. "Alright, Clint. We're going in 3... 2... 1!" Bruce yells. Clint suddenly disappears. "Coming back in 3....2....1..!" Clint reappears and falls to his knees.

Nat rushes up to him. "Hey, hey. Look at me. You okay?"

Clint holds up a baseball glove and throws it to Dad. "Yeah, it worked. It worked."

We all sit in the meeting room and stare at the holograms of the Stones. "Okay, so the how works. Now we gotta figure out the when and the where. Almost all of us has had an encounter with at least one of the six Infinity Stones." Steve starts.

Dad paces back and forth beside him. "Well I'd substitute the word encounter for damn well near been killed by one of the six Infinity Stones."

"I haven't, I don't even know what the hell you're all talking about." Scott says.

"Regardless, we only have enough Pym Particles for one round trip each, and these stones have been in a lot of different places throughout history." I say.

"Our history. So, not a lot of convenient spots to just drop in."

"Which means we have to pick our targets." Clint nods.

"Correct."

"Let's start with the Aether. Thor, what do you know?" Steve asks. We all turn see Thor sitting in a chair with his sunglasses on. It is impossible to tell whether he is awake or asleep.

"Is he asleep?" Nat asks, tiki ring her head as she frowns.

"No, I'm pretty sure he's dead."

Thor suddenly leaps up and walks up to the holograms, "Where to start? Umm... The Aether, first, is not a stone, someone called it a stone before. It's more of a... an angry sludge thing, so... someones gonna need to amend that. Here's an interesting story though, many years ago... My grandfather had to hide the stones from the Dark Elves..." He wiggles his fingers to imitate a spooky ghost. "Wooooh, scary beings. So Jane." An image of Jane Foster pops up on the screen. "Oh, there she is. That's Jane... She's... an old flame of mine... She... she stuck her hand inside a rock this one time... and then the Aether stuck itself inside her... And, she became very, very sick. So I had to take her to Asgard, which is where I'm from. And we had to try and fix her. We were dating at the time, you see. I got to introduce her to my Mother... who's dead." Thor starts to look broken, and seems on the verge of tears. "And oh you know, Jane and I aren't even dating anymore, these things happen though you know, nothing last forever." Dad starts to push him back to his chair. "I'm not done yet, the only thing permanent in life is impermanence."

"Awesome. Eggs? Breakfast?"

"I'd like a Bloody Mary, thank you." Thor smiles.

After the meeting I had gotten Thor his drink while dad ordered us some food. We all sat around and ate as Rocket paces back and forth on the table.

"Quill said he stole the Power Stone from Morag." Rocket starts.

Scott looks up confused, "Is that a person?"

"Morag's a planet. Quill was a person."

Scott's face lights up. "A planet? Like in outer space?"

"Oh, look. It's like a little puppy, all happy and everything. Do you wanna go to space? You wanna go to space, puppy? I'll get you to space."

I giggle at Rocket, looking down as Steve rests his hand on my thigh. I look up to see him smiling at me.

After hours of trying to think, Dad and I end up on top of a desk, laying back-to-back with Bruce on the floor. "Strange...the mysterious and sexy wizard, what kind of doctor was he again?"

"I'm gonna ignore the first part....but ear-nose-throat meets rabbit from a hat." Dad sighs.

"Nice place in the village, though." Bruce says.

"Yeah. Sullivan Street."

"Hmm... Bleecker." Bruce nods.

"Wait, he lived in New York right?" I ask.

"No. He lived in Toronto. Were you even paying attention?" Dad turns to me.

"I don't remember that shit from five years ago! What I'm trying to say is from the information you told me....if you pick the right year, there are three stones in New York.

Bruce sits up in surprise. "Shut the front door."

We get the team together and separate ourselves into groups. I would being going with dad, Bruce, Scott, and Steve.

"All right. We have a plan. Six Stones, three teams. One shot."