FORTUITY ☆ B.BARNES ✔️

38; A Little Break

MUCH TO THEIR SURPRISE, their long-awaited fight with Seraphina never came that day. They waited for two hours until everyone got tired. They also could not stand the smell of smoke and sweat, everyone needed a shower. Maeve was surprisingly not frustrated, she took it easy and decided to wait for Captain Marvel to come back with some intel. Every day, she helped Bruce in the lab, trained for a little while, avoided Bucky, and went to bed. Her routine was boring, but somehow, for the past week, she was feeling very productive. No one ever saw her in the living space anymore. 

Her door was creaked open as three figures stared at her from the other side. Wanda, Sam, and Peter Parker watched with worried looks. Wanda nudged Peter on the arm with her shoulder, "Go talk to her." She said. "What am I supposed to say? "Hey, you're isolating yourself why don't you come and spend time with us so you won't go crazy?" He replied, using a mocking tone. Wanda rolled her eyes. Sam hit the both of them lightly, "Shut up, you two. We're all gonna die if she hears us." Peter assured him that it wouldn't happen, and pointed to Maeve. Maeve was listening to some songs on full blast, and she was writing something in her notebook. There were at least a dozen notebooks identical to the one she was writing on, they were all set up nicely on the shelf of the desk. She had her headphones plugged into the phone they gave her on her first day at the tower. None of them had ever seen her so focused before. 

"Yep, she needs to spend time with us," Sam stated as-a-matter-of-factly

"Bucky's always hanging out in the living space, though!" 

"Does it matter? They're adults. I'm sure they won't mind each other that much, Pete."

Wanda was tired of the two men bickering, so she knocked on the slightly opened door once. Maeve was too busy writing things and listening to music, she barely heard the sound. So, Wanda knocked again. Maeve finally snapped out of her trance and flinched in her seat. She slowly turned her head and sighed. It was just her friends. "You scared me." She said, laughing nervously and clutching her chest. She breathed heavily as she motioned for her friends to come in her room. "So, Maeve. We're going to play Uno, and we were wondering if you wanted to join us." 

Maeve shook her head, "Nah, I'm busy. Maybe if I'm free, I'll join later." Wanda was disappointed, she always made that excuse. I'm busy. I don't have time. Maybe, when I'm free. She sent Sam and Peter a look, they knew what she wanted. Sam subtly shook his head, keeping his eyes locked on her. Wanda nodded in response, her hands glowing red with magic. "Come on, just one game?" Peter pleaded. Maeve, who was already back to writing her notes, shook her head. "I already told you, I'm busy. Maybe next time guys." The trio looked at each other, then at her, and back at each other. "Yeah, well this time we're not taking no for an answer." 

Wanda never thought she would use her powers against Maeve, but she lifted her in the air as Peter used his webs to stick Maeve's hands together.

"Hey! What the-? Stop!" 

They dragged out to the living space, where Bucky, Thor, Shuri, Groot, Rocket and Peter Quill were already playing the popular card game. As soon as he saw Maeve's sleek figure being carried out by Wanda's magic, every muscle in Bucky tensed up. He felt a hand on his shoulder, it was Shuri. Bucky gave her a half smile and sighed, "Hi." He said. Shuri giggled, "Hello, Captain Barnes."

"Okay, when you guys are done with this round of Uno, Maeve says she'd like to play a round of poker!" Sam announced, everyone mostly agreed. There were a few people who didn't want to play but it had been forever since Maeve actually joined their games. Usually, she would be in her room, while everyone was spending time with each other. Peter had absolutely no idea how to play poker, but for the sake of Maeve, he decided to agree anyway. Maeve sat on one of the kitchen barstools and waited. She was on the other side of the room, Bucky was leaning on the couch, just below Shuri. She was braiding his hair.  

The Uno game had ended up with the winner being Rocket. There were a lot of people who knew how to play poker, so the coffee table was surrounded by Peter Quill, Maeve, Bruce, Scott, Rocket and Peter P as a team (they didn't know how to play), Shuri, Bucky, and T'Challa being the dealer. 

Maeve looked at her cards. Queen Of Hearts and Ace Of Spades. Her poker face was surprisingly perfect. No one knew what kind of cards she possessed. Observing the table, she figured Scott had good cards, judging by the huge grin on his face. Bruce had furrowed brows, they probably didn't match the main cards on the table. Maeve had a big smirk on her face. Peter and Rocket, having no idea what "Fold" even meant, folded. Bruce folded as well. 

The final cards on the table were Queen of Diamonds, King of Clubs, Jack Of Hearts, 3 Diamond, and 7 Diamond. Not really in Maeve's favor, but she was happy her Queen would match the main card's Queen. She would win. Everyone showed their cards, most had some doubles, none had good sets. Maeve, with a triumphant smile, slammed her cards on the table.

 "Queens, Double."

Everyone at the table sighed. Maeve then noticed, out of the 9 people playing this game, there were only eight sets of playing cards. She scanned the table and her eyes locked onto Bucky's. He gave her a smirk. As he set down his cards, she sighed. His King beat her Queen. 

-

After a lot more rounds of Poker, they decided to watch a movie. Maeve forgot how fun it was to hang out with her friends. "Who the hell decided that 'The Notebook' would be a good movie to watch?" Rocket asked as he shoved popcorn into his mouth. Maeve laughed, and snuggled into the blanket. She was on the floor, while everyone else was on the couches and the loveseats. 

She noticed Bucky occupying himself on the loveseat. Oh, how comfortable and cuddly he looked. 

No. Stop it Maeve. Was it just her or had his hair grown longer since the last time she saw him? 

They were 30 minutes into the movie and Rocket was close to bawling his eyes out. Bucky couldn't help but sneak a few glances at Maeve as she grabbed a handful of tissues and blew into them as softly as she could. 

"Oh my god, just go back to him, Allie! What the hell are you doing?" Rocket wailed at the TV. When he got looks from everyone else, he groaned. "Yeah, yeah. It might be a good movie after all." He grumbled to himself.

Maeve checked the time on her watch and gasped quietly. She had already spent a good 3 hours with them when she could be working on researching about her powers, or training! Or even just fixing and tweaking her suit! 

She sighed, it was fun while it lasted but she needed to get back to work.