Infinity | B. Barnes

The Sokovia Accords

The avengers compound was quiet, eerily so.

Ever since the team had gotten back from that mission in Lagos, everything has been tense. The others have been walking on eggshells around Wanda, trying not to upset her. Though she has spent most of her time in her room.

I could hear the noise of the news coming from Wanda's room through the walls. I could hear the voice of the king of Wakanda speaking about the incident.

The main topic of the news has been the Lagos incident, and understandably so. As much as Wanda didn't hurt those people on purpose, I knew I couldn't just expect people to not be upset by it. They wouldn't just brush an incident like this aside.

But I also knew that this incident was taking a huge toll on my friend.

I huffed softly as I looked up at my plain white celling. I hate that she is beating herself up over this when it wasn't her fault, but I know that if I were in her position I would feel the same way. The guilt of the situation would eat me alive.

I picked up my phone that was resting on my bed beside me and started to scroll through Twitter. I very quickly got annoyed as my eyes skimmed over the tweets about the incident in Lagos. People calling her a monster, a villain, a murderer. After a moment I turned my phone off and set it on my bedside table. There was no point in torturing myself over their bitter words.

Of course people were angry. They had every right to be. But I just wish that I had a way to erase all this to protect my friend.

I glanced towards my door as I heard the noise of footsteps going down the hallway in the direction of Wanda's room. Then the noise of the TV fell silent.

"It's my fault." I could hear Wanda say through the walls.

"That's not true." Steve. That's who was checking up on Wanda. It didn't surprise me in the slightest that he was checking up on her. I'd already checked up on her this morning and she had been incredibly self deprecative about it.

"Turn the TV back on. They're being very specific" Wanda replied to him

"I should've clocked that bomb vest. Long before you had to deal with it." Steve retaliated, trying his best to take the weight of guilt of her shoulders.
"Rumlow said "Bucky"...and all of a sudden I was a 16 year old kid again, in Brooklyn. And people died. It's on me."

I felt my chest squeeze tightly at his words. I knew about Bucky Barnes, Steve had told me about him one night when we were alone in the lounge area. He had told me about how they grew up together, that Steve thought he had died in the war only to find him still alive as an assassin for Hydra.

Steve said that Hydra had done something to him, made him into a weapon instead of the kind man he knew. I believed him, even though others may not. I know exactly what Hydra was capable of first hand. It wouldn't surprise me if they had turned him into the winter soldier. It made my heart ache for a man that I didn't know. If he has been in their clutches for 70 years or more, I don't want to imagine what they have done.

"It's was both of us" Wanda said to him.

I felt guilty for listening in to what they were saying, I couldn't help that I could hear things that I shouldn't. But the guilt of eavesdropping dropping was building up in my chest so I picked up my headphones and blasted some music. Blocking out any other sounds.

After a few minutes, I heard a knock at my door. I paused my music and got up to answer it, Placing my phone in my pocket and headphones on my bedside table.

I pulled open the door and was greeted with Steve, he gave me a kind smile that I easily returned.

"Hey, Steve. What's up?" I asked him