Catch Me

Day 3

The bright sun streams through a small crack in the curtains early in the morning, unceremoniously waking you up. You roll over in bed in an attempt to hide from the rude awakening but it is no use. Once you have been woken up, there's no going back to sleep.

You open your eyes and find yourself face-to-face with your laptop, which kept you up until well past four in the morning. At the time, binge watching your favorite show on Netflix had felt like a wonderful idea. Now, due to the exhaustion that clings desperately to your bones, you realize that staying up so late probably wasn't such a great plan after all.

Your movements are sluggish as you sit up and throw your legs over the side of the bed. The drowsiness only lasts for a couple of seconds before an unexpected blast of cold air rushes in on you. The chilly breeze acts as a better alarm clock than the sun as you jump up to search for a sweater to cover your bare arms. When you can't find one, you settle for a fleece blanket that is folded up at the top of your closet. The second you wrap it around your shoulders, warmth engulfs your body and you sigh in relief.

With your makeshift cape in tow, you exit your icebox of a bedroom to find that there is no warm reprieve in the hallway either. You grumble all the way into the equally cold elevator but instead of focusing on your rapidly dropping body temperature, you think about the delicious breakfast waiting for you in the kitchen: a bowl of your favorite cereal.

The elevator doors open and you wrap your blanket even more tightly around your body. Apparently it's more than just your floor that is freezing, it is the whole tower.

As you head towards the kitchen, you catch sight of Sam eating in the dining room. He is wearing a particularly thick sweater, sweatpants and a scarf. "Why the hell is it so cold in this tower? I get that it's hot outside but this is ridiculous."

"Well good morning to you too, sunshine," he greets sarcastically. When all you do is glare at him in response, he adds, "Stark is working on the cooling system. Something about wanting to make a couple of upgrades."

"Leave it to Tony Stark to fix something that isn't broken."

When you enter the kitchen, the first thing you do is take your box of cereal out of its hiding place. Upon first moving into the tower, you learned that boundaries were nonexistent when it came to food. No matter how many labels and threatening sticky notes you left on your things, people still ate them. Desperation led you to start hiding anything you deemed off-limits and, much to your amazement, it actually worked.

The need for your next important ingredient, milk, leads you to the fridge. The first thing that crosses your mind upon opening it is that the fridge, albeit cold, is nothing compared to your wintry surroundings. A second, more horrifying realization that threatens to make you weak in the knees is the lack of milk. You scan the fridge's contents three times before rubbing your eyes and silently praying this is all a bad dream.

Unfortunately, that is not the case.

"Y/N?" A hand finds its way onto your blanket-clad shoulder, but you shake it off. "Are you okay?"

"What do you want Barnes?" You're still wary of him and his actions because of what happened yesterday in this very same kitchen.

Bucky has the decency to appear a little guilty before saying, "Nothing. You just seem very distraught."

Your thoughts wander back to the bowl of cereal you were looking forward to eating on this early, tundra-like morning. You had gotten your hopes up only to have them come crashing down around you. "There's no milk for my cereal," you explain.

Instead of laughing at you like you're expecting him to do, Bucky stills. His blue eyes dart around the room until they land on something in the far off corner and stop there. When you follow his gaze, you see that he is staring at the microwave. Your eyebrows knit together and you begin walking towards the device.